SA election 2022: Aspiring Taylor MP Nick Champion living in North Adelaide

Nick Champion is Labor’s candidate for the seat of Taylor in one of Adelaide’s poorest regions - but lives 30km away in affluent North Adelaide. See the aspiring MPs who don’t live in their electorates – and the ones yet to tell us.

The man who wants to be elected as the MP for one of Adelaide’s poorest regions says he is happy to be “judged on his record’’ of representing the northern suburbs, despite now living a world away in North Adelaide – one of the of state’s most affluent areas.

Nick Champion, who recently quit federal parliament, where he had been a Labor MP for 15 years, is now seeking to be elected as state MP for Taylor in Adelaide’s northern suburbs – but lives more than 30km from the people he wants to represent.

Mr Champion has lived in North Adelaide since 2017 but denies this will undermine his ability to speak for the people of Taylor, a seat that includes some of Adelaide’s poorest suburbs including Davoren Park, Smithfield and Munno Para West.

Tale of two suburbs graphic

Nick Champion lives in affluent North Adelaide. Picture: Dean Martin

“I’m happy to be judged on my record and my commitment to the people of the northern suburbs,’’ Mr Champion said “They know I’m on their side.”

The aspiring state MP said he had lived in the area for most of his life.

“I was born in Elizabeth, went to high school in Kapunda and university at the old Salisbury campus of UniSA. I lived in the then Taylor electorate (Paralowie and Burton) between 2003 and 2013,’’ Mr Champion said.

Before moving to North Adelaide, he lived in Greenock and Burton, which were both inside his former federal seat of Spence.

The Advertiser on Wednesday asked both Liberal and Labor how many of their MPs and candidates lived within their electorates but neither provided answers.

Labor candidate Nick champion with a rum at Murrays BBQ and Bar in Gawler. Picture: Dylan Coker

Nick Champion during his time in federal parliament. Picture: AAP Image

MPs living far from their electorates has often caused controversy. Former premier Mike Rann lived in Stepney while holding the northern suburbs seat of Ramsay.

Former Labor cabinet minister Michael O’Brien was elected as member for the now defunct northern suburbs seat of Napier, while living in Springfield, one of Adelaide’s most exclusive enclaves. A former holder of the seat Mr Champion now seeks was former Labor cabinet minister Leesa Vlahos, who lived in Glen Osmond, even further from Taylor than North Adelaide.

Depending on what route you take, it is about a 35-minute, and the same number of kilometres, drive from the centre of North Adelaide to the middle of Davoren Park.

But the bare statistics tell another tale of how it is more than just distance that separates the two suburbs.

Park's Fish & Chips owner Bassam Najjar and wife Ghada at the Davoren Park Shopping Centre. Picture: Tom Huntley

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, drawn from the 2016 Census, the average median weekly household income in North Adelaide was $1693.

In Davoren Park, within the seat of Taylor that Mr Champion wants to hold for Labor, it is $756. In North Adelaide, it takes $995,000 to buy an average house. In Davoren Park, that number is $230,000.

In North Adelaide, 39.1 per cent of the population has been to university to pick up a degree. In Davoren Park, that number is only 2.6 per cent.

The education numbers are also reflected in the types of jobs people have.

According to the ABS, 39.3 per cent of the population in North Adelaide define themselves as “professionals”. Just over 4 per cent are classified as labourers.

In Davoren Park, 5.9 per cent were classed as professionals and 25.2 per cent were labourers.

Youth worker Rebekah Sellars at the Davoren Park Shopping Centre. Picture: Tom Huntley

At the Davoren Park shopping centre on Peachey Rd, there are mixed opinions as whether it was important for Mr Champion to live in the electorate.

The open-air shopping centre itself is trying to reinvigorate itself. There is a chemist, post office, fish and chip shop, second-hand book store, op shop and youth centre. Walls have been painted with murals to give some extra pizzazz.

Talking to shop owners and customers, some were concerned Labor took the safe seat for granted, others expressed worries about youth unemployment and school attendance.

Hoon driving, the lack of a basketball stadium and the long-delayed electrification of the Gawler rail line were highlighted as other issues that needed to be resolved.

Youth worker Rebekah Sellars said that, in an ideal world, Mr Champion should live in the electorate.

Nick Champion and wife Fiona. Picture: Dylan Coker

“It’s important to live in an area to understand an area, because issues can change quickly,’’ Ms Sellars said.

“It depends on whether he comes out here to engage with us.’’

Still, she said, she liked Mr Champion and knew he had history in the community.

‘If he had no relationship out here it would be a problem,” she said. But David Howe took another view.

“It’s not right,’’ Mr Howe said. “They should live in the community if they want to represent it.

“I get his tickets in the mail, but I never see him.’

At the Parks Fish and Chips shop, Bassam Najjar is a firm supporter. A member of the Unitarian Druze community, Mr Najjar and wife Ghada have run the shop for eight years.

“I’m not at all worried whether he lives here,’’ he said. “We still like him, he’s a good man.’’

But another man, who did not give his name, said it did not matter where any politician lived.