Paul Starick: Georgina Downer’s fatal political mistake
Georgina Downer might actually have captured her father’s former seat of Mayo were it not for one critical error that ruined her chances before her campaign even began.
SA News
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Defeated Downer quits SA, returning to Melbourne
- Are you missing out on your latest subscriber exclusive rewards?
Georgina Downer might have captured her father Alexander’s former seat of Mayo had she moved back to her family heartland several months before declaring her Liberal candidacy.
The two-time election loser was taking soundings about putting up her hand in Mayo at least 18 months before the by-election in July last year that was triggered by Rebekha Sharkie’s citizenship issues.
Rather than taking a punt and moving back to Mayo over the 2017/18 summer, for example, Ms Downer waited until after she declared her candidacy following Ms Sharkie quitting parliament in May last year – six months after she was embroiled in citizenship issues.
This was Ms Downer’s fatal mistake. Had she decoupled her homecoming from her candidacy, she could have reduced the inevitable and damaging accusations of being a blow-in seeking to claim her family birthright.
Instead, she was caught on the back foot from the moment she formally declared her hand – two days after Ms Sharkie’s resignation.
“As someone who grew up and spent the first two decades of her life in Mayo, was married in Mayo, and whose family have lived in the Adelaide Hills for over a century, I am coming home,” Ms Downer said on May 11 last year.
“Like so many young South Australians, I went interstate and overseas to seek out job opportunities. Now I am coming home to use those experiences and give back to my community.”
At least if she had moved back earlier, gambling that the citizenship row would claim Ms Sharkie, Ms Downer would have had time to rebuild her Adelaide Hills roots before launching her campaign.
It is understandable that the former diplomat, lawyer and mother of two young children might be cautious about uprooting herself from Melbourne, her husband’s work base as a corporate law firm partner.
Yet, as she conceded after the May federal election in an interview with The Advertiser, her somewhat rushed return to Mayo “no doubt, fed that narrative” that she was a blow-in.
The family dynasty was a double-edged sword. As The Advertiser revealed in May last year, Mayo Liberal members voted the previous month to “strongly reject” a bid pitched by SA Liberal president and former premier John Olsen to return Ms Sharkie to the Liberal Party.
The reason – the Mayo powerbrokers remained loyal to the Downers and favoured Ms Downer as the candidate.
During both failed campaigns, the accusations of entitlement stuck too, even though Ms Downer later correctly pointed out that she sought to be elected through a democratic process – just like her father, grandfather and great-grandfather.
Ms Downer’s political career now appears over, having in 2016 lost a preselection bid for a safe Melbourne federal seat and been defeated twice in Mayo.
She was considered a contender for an SA Senate spot but that option will be removed with her return to Victoria in January.
Given none of her siblings have shown much political interest, the so-called Downer dynasty has been extinguished – at least for a generation.