SA election 2022: 25-year-old Olivia Savvas is state parliament’s youngest member

Newly elected Labor MP Olivia Savvas is the youngest person person in SA’s lower house – but don’t assume she doesn’t have a lot of fight.

Age is nothing but a number for Olivia Savvas, who is poised to become the youngest person in state parliament.

The 25-year-old Labor candidate took the northeastern seat of Newland from Liberal MP Richard Harvey, despite being pre-selected only weeks before last weekend’s election.

A first-term councillor on Tea Tree Gully Council, her rapid rise through the political ranks has astonished even her closest supporters.

Ms Savvas will become the youngest member in the House of Assembly – and is determined to be an advocate for women and young people.

“When someone says to me ‘what experience do you have?’ I say well, I don’t have 20 plus years of corporate experience but I do have 20 plus years of fight,” she said.

“And what you need in a Member of Parliament is a fighter and I’ve got that in droves.”

Ms Savvas, who won her seat with a 6.3 per cent swing, is no stranger to adversity.

Most of the women in her family were single mothers, dealt with domestic violence, sexual abuse, as well as insecure work and housing.

New Labor MP Olivia Savvas is the youngest member of the lower house in SA history. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Some had partners with addiction issues, or were battling their own addictions.

“Not only do your experiences not define your work, they don’t define your value,” she said.

“It doesn’t matter what your situation is at home, you still have the ability to do whatever you want.

“You still have the ability to show up, get the job done and improve yourself.

Ms Savvas attributes her determined attitude to her mother.

“My mum is someone who has been through some significant ordeals in her life — worse than anything that I’ve been through and she is strong, she’s loud, she’s opinionated,” she said.

“I wouldn’t get away with telling anyone that I’m not opinionated.”

Her mentor at Tea Tree Gully Council, deputy mayor Lucas Jones said he was “incredibly proud” of how Ms Savvas had won Newland.

Ms Savvas during the campaign. Picture: Dean Martin

“She was pre-selected at the last minute when Frances (Bedford) decided to move over from Florey,” he said.

“Nobody was really giving her much of a chance but she gave it her best shot, did a lot of door knocking and did what she could in a short period of time.

“Then came the huge swing to Labor and she managed to pull it off.”

Ms Savvas said she had been involved with Labor since before becoming a councillor at the 2018 local government elections.

“I knew Newland was a marginal seat,” she said.

“Labor were looking for someone involved in the community and as someone heavily involved in the community it seemed like the perfect opportunity.”

Ms Savvas said she keen to make a difference to her community.

“I’ve grown up in the northeast, I know it like the back of my hand,” she said.

“Ttaking away essential services from our community or having limited access to services in our community is inherently unjust.”

Ms Savvas said she understood her role was to be the voice for Newland but she also believed she had a duty to other women and youth.

“There’s a long way to go to have greater diversity but having a huge number of women elected is a huge step because it looks a little bit more like our society.”

Hardworking Liberal MP loses her northeastern seat

Among former Liberal politicians who packed up their electorate offices on Monday was Paula Luethen.

Together with neighbouring Liberal MP Richard Harvey in Newland, Ms Luethen unexpectedly fell to a young female Labor opponent during the party’s landslide victory.

The first-term MP lost her marginal northeastern seat of King to Labor’s Rhiannon Pearce with a swing of 4.9 per cent against her.

This was despite former Liberal premier Steven Marshall’s government spending more than $363m in Adelaide’s northeast during its four-year term in a bid to shore up voter support.

Projects included the $20m upgrade of Golden Grove Rd, $92m refurbishing Modbury Hospital and $82.5m connecting thousands of homes with septic tanks to mains sewerage.

Liberal MP Paula Luethen handing out how to vote cards at Golden Grove Uniting Church. Picture: Dean Martin

The seats of King and Newland, with margins of 0.6 and 0.2 per cent respectively, were both regularly visited during the election campaign by Mr Marshall and Labor leader Peter Malinauskas.

Former Liberal prime minister John Howard accompanied Mr Marshall to Modbury and Golden Grove last week.

They met Ms Luethen, a former Tea Tree Gully councillor who became a tireless campaigner in King, created in a boundary redistribution before the 2018 election.

Ms Luethen regularly attended community events, supported dozens of applications for government grants and frequently doorknocked residents, sporting clubs and businesses.

“You have to give Paula credit,” said one MP, who asked not be named.

“She worked the hardest out of just about any Liberal MP anywhere in the state trying to look after her constituents and community.”

Ms Luethen has moved out of her office in the Golden Grove Shopping Centre.

It was previously occupied by Labor MP for Wright, Blair Boyer, who spent several months working from a camper van before he was allocated another electoral office at Salisbury East.

Colin James