Senator Nick Xenophon ditches threat to direct preferences against Liberals in SA

PIVOTAL Independent Senator Nick Xenophon is abandoning his threat to direct all his crucial preferences to Labor and saying his party will most likely ask voters to decide in the Upper House.

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PIVOTAL Independent Senator Nick Xenophon is abandoning his threat to direct all his crucial preferences to Labor and saying his party will most likely ask voters to decide in the Upper House.

In a statement to the Sunday Mail that both major parties will examine closely, Senator Xenophon also says his 11 SA candidates will help determine vital lower-house support.

It is understood the Nick Xenophon Team now will not issue a blanket recommendation for voters to preference a single major party in the lower house.

Senator Xenophon last year said he would direct all preferences to Labor unless the Federal Government committed to building all 12 of the $50 billion Future Submarines in Adelaide — as it did late last month.

“For the Senate, it is more than likely we will recommend voters determine their own preferences,” Senator Xenophon told the Sunday Mail.

“For the House of Reps we’d be mugs to lock ourselves into a position now, given the election campaign hasn’t even begun — and of course local candidates will play a key role in any decision.”

The NXT also is refusing to trade preference support with major parties in one seat in return for a favourable position in another, either in SA or interstate.

VOTERS’ CHOICE: Senator Nick Xenophon with his campaign director and Nick Xenophon Team candidate Stirling Griff, at the Adelaide Oval footbridge. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

Polling last month found NXT candidates attracting 14.5 per cent support in Sturt and 11 per cent in Hindmarsh, compared to 24.88 per cent of first-preference Senate vote at the 2013 election.

But Senator Xenophon says polls so far indicate his party could win two or more lower house seats and, possibly, three Senate spots.

“All candidates are running to win. I hope enough people give us a go to do politics differently — from the political centre — rather than the perennial ’them and us’ mentality of the major parties,” he said.

“Being joined by like-minded colleagues in the lower house and Senate will mean so much more can be achieved.”

Senator Xenophon said the key issues for his party and its candidates would be jobs, Australian Made industry and produce, predatory gambling, government accountability and SA’s survival as a thriving manufacturing state.

Critics have attacked the NXT as a personality cult and undemocratically controlled by Senator Xenophon, along with Senate candidate and campaign director Stirling Griff.

Asked whether NXT would collapse like tycoon Clive Palmer’s eponymous party, Senator Xenophon argued his party’s foundation and framework, in place for more than a year, focused on non-ideological, collaborative solutions.

“For starters, I don’t have Clive’s money or good looks,” he said.

Mr Griff, a former Australian Retailers Association state director and previous owner of a network of mobile phone stores, said his retail experience had taught him optimism was the critical driver and government had a role to play.

“When people feel their job, income, family or health may in some way be in jeopardy — because of bad government decisions — they hold-off on non-essential purchases and important decisions,” he told the Sunday Mail.

“This cocooning effect has an immediate effect on the local economy, jobs and personal growth.”