South Australian by-elections to cost taxpayers up to $700,000

By-elections to replace two senior Labor MPs who retired less than one year after the state election will cost taxpayers up to $700,000.

• Former premier Jay Weatherill resigns
• John Rau joins Weatherill in resigning
• 2014: Voters go to polls to replace independent Bob Such
• 2015: Liberals triumph in by-election triggered by Iain Evans’ retirement

By-elections to replace two senior Labor MPs who retired less than one year after the state election will cost taxpayers up to $700,000.

The February 9 elections in Cheltenham and Enfield to replace former premier Jay Weatherill and his deputy John Rau will cost the public purse between $600,000 and $700,000, Treasurer Rob Lucas told The Advertiser.

That means the by-elections, to be held just 11 months after last year’s state election, will cost at least double the $300,000 needed to keep the recently closed Strathmont pool at Oakden operating.

Labor says the pool closure will leave about 700 children with a disability who use the site needing to find a new pool elsewhere or having to stop swimming entirely.

The exact cost of the by-elections will not be known until they are held, but Mr Lucas said those figures were based on Electoral Commission of SA estimates.

Questions to Mr Rau and Mr Weatherill about the cost of the elections to replace them went unanswered.

Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said by-elections were “rarely ideal” but are “part of our democracy”.

“Running free and fair elections has a cost, but it’s also an investment in our democratic system of government,” Mr Malinauskas said.

Mr Weatherill and Mr Rau both originally committed to serve a full four-year term as local members after moving to the backbench after Labor’s state election loss.

In announcing his resignation in December, Mr Weatherill he’d been thinking about retiring for “some time” and said former leaders “hanging around in politics hasn’t got a great track record”.

Mr Lucas said it was “for the Labor Party to justify to the people of South Australia the costs of the spending when they’re complaining about cutbacks”.

The Australian Electoral Commission publishes the cost of each federal by-election on its website, but this practice is not repeated by the state electoral commission.

Seven candidates will contest the seat of Enfield on February 9, while five hopefuls nominated for Cheltenham.