Veteran South Australian MP reveals why he’s quitting federal politics
VETERAN federal Liberal backbencher Andrew Southcott is quiting politics, paving the way for a female candidate but risking his once-safe seat of Boothby falling to Nick Xenophon’s party. Find out why.
- Choppergate: Southcott wanted Speaker’s chair
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See Paul Starick’s analysis below
VETERAN federal Liberal backbencher Andrew Southcott will unexpectedly quit politics, paving the way for a female candidate but risking his once-safe seat of Boothby falling to Nick Xenophon’s party.
Exclusively revealing his decision to The Advertiser, Dr Southcott declared he would seek to renew his medical career after the next election, insisting he had neither been pushed aside nor was leaving because the federal Coalition government was consistently trailing in the polls.
His surprise departure gives the South Australian Liberals their first chance to deliver upon Education Minister and party powerbroker Christopher Pyne’s vow in July to make it easier for young career-minded women to become Liberal MPs.
But the retirement of a long-term sitting member also intensifies the prospect of the seat being seized by Senator Xenophon’s party, whose Senate vote at the 2013 election was highest in Boothby, where it even outpolled the Liberals.
Dr Southcott, who last month launched a failed bid to replace Bronwyn Bishop as Speaker, has held the inner southern suburbs seat since 1996 and gathered 57 per cent of the two-party preferred vote in 2013.
Dr Southcott, 47, said his decision was not linked to the speakership loss and declined to nominate a preferred successor.
Nominations for federal seats close on Tuesday and party sources canvassed state Elder candidate Carolyn Habib, Advertiser columnist Nicolle Flint and Senator Simon Birmingham’s staffer, Caitlin Keage, as potential Liberal candidates.
“This is entirely my own decision … I think this is the opportunity to have someone new, someone fresh, ” Dr Southcott told The Advertiser.
“I think the Liberal Party has a good chance at the next federal election and I think anyone who’s followed Australian politics will know that you can never write off the Coalition in a national election.”
Dr Southcott had been expected to stand again and his decision to retire will surprise Liberal powerbrokers, who he told last night ahead of a public announcement this morning.
Labor’s Boothby candidate is Urrbrae Agricultural High School senior maths teacher and Mitcham councillor Mark Ward, who unsuccessfully stood in January’s by-election in the safe Liberal state seat of Davenport.
Senator Xenophon, who is expected to announce candidates next month, is vowing to target Liberal-held seats if the Coalition breaks a promise to build Australia’s future submarines in Adelaide.
Dr Southcott said a decision to base the $50 billion submarine project at Osborne’s shipyard would help defuse Senator Xenophon’s campaign and boost Liberal support in SA.
“A positive announcement about the future submarines being built in South Australia would give the Liberal Party a great platform in South Australia for the next federal election,” he said.
But Newspoll’s David Briggs said the Nick Xenophon Team’s support was growing. He said its candidate would secure Boothby if the 2013 Senate vote (28.8 per cent compared to the Liberals 28.54 per cent) was mirrored in the lower-house race at the next federal election, expected in the second half of next year.
“We’re already seeing it (growing Xenophon party support) in polls even before Nick Xenophon has come out and announced candidates,” said Mr Briggs, the managing director of Galaxy Research.
Mr Briggs said Coalition primary support in SA had slumped from 44.9 per cent at the 2013 poll to 36 per cent in Newspoll’s April-June figures, while support for “others” (including Senator Xenophon) had surged in SA from 11.1 per cent to 20 per cent in the same period.
Boothby, which extends from Clarence Gardens and Urrbrae in the north to Happy Valley in the south, has been in Liberal hands since 1949. It includes the state seat of Mitchell, which former Labor MP Kris Hanna won as an independent in 2006.
As in other safe SA Liberal electorates, the party has never had a female MP in Boothby.
Dr Southcott has been lashed as underachieving by internal and external critics, yet has withstood concerted efforts to unseat him by Labor’s Annabel Digance, Nicole Cornes and Chloe Fox, along with the Australian Democrats’ Jo Pride in 2001.
Boothby became a marginal seat in 2004 when Ms Fox achieved a swing of almost 10 per cent, while Ms Digance lost by only 1275 votes in 2010. But Mr Southcott won 57.12 per cent of the two-party preferred vote in 2013, returning Boothby to a safe Liberal seat.
In 2012, he also defeated a preselection challenge from former Liberal state president Chris Moriarty.
Dr Southcott defended his record over seven elections, saying his career spanned an era when SA “punched above its weight” with four Liberal Cabinet ministers and the Speaker, a decade ago.
“Everyone enters politics with the goal of achieving as much as they possibly can, of serving in as higher position as they can. That hasn’t happened. It’s not something I dwell on,” Dr Southcott said.
Instead, he said he was proud of playing roles in delivering the State Aquatic Centre at Marion, the Integrated Cancer Centre at Flinders Medical Centre and progressing the South Rd upgrade at Darlington.
Dr Southcott chaired two parliamentary committees — one which oversaw public hearings into the United States free trade deal — and from 2007 to 2013 was Opposition spokesman for employment services, apprenticeships and training, sport and primary health care.
His 1994 preselection in Boothby was highly controversial because he was installed by the then-dominant Right to thwart former Senate leader Robert Hill’s bid to enter the lower house and oust Alexander Downer as Liberal leader.
SURPRISE MOVE LEAVES ONCE-SAFE SEATS VULNERABLE
By Paul Starick
IN the end, it seems veteran Liberal backbencher Andrew Southcott was overlooked one too many times.
His failed bid for the federal Speaker’s job last month initially held great promise. Dr Southcott was considered a contender but did not come close. Instead, Tony Smith was elected.
Clearly, had he been successful Dr Southcott likely would not be retiring.
He insists his decision to quit was not driven by bitterness at being overlooked and, instead, was prompted by the desire to resume his medical career while, at 47, he still has time. But his decision to quit will surprise Liberal powerbrokers, who had been expecting him to continue.
The party will lose the advantage of incumbency when facing an expected onslaught from popular Senator Nick Xenophon’s party, which has the potential to upset Liberals in seemingly safe seats.
Boothby is the most prone, because this is where the Xenophon party secured most Senate support at the 2013 election.
But Sturt MP and party powerbroker Christopher Pyne is at risk in Sturt, as is Assistant Infrastructure Minister Jamie Briggs in Mayo.
Dr Southcott’s decision to quit might well be the first definite expression of Liberal nervousness, given Senator Xenophon’s threat to target them if the promise to build Australia’s future submarines in Adelaide is not kept.
Ultimately, the Liberals are now faced with either an opportunity or a headache. They can usher in new talent in a key seat but risk exposing an inexperienced candidate in an electoral battleground which was once safe territory.
