SA Liberal Rowan Ramsay faces last minute threat Liz Habermann confirms she will contest Grey

A standout independent and bakery manager who gave the Liberals a big scare in the SA election in one of their safest seats has confirmed she will enter the federal race.

The Wudinna bakery manager who almost captured one of the state’s safest Liberal seats, Liz Habermann, has confirmed she will contest Grey at the May 21 federal election.

As revealed by The Advertiser on April 14, Ms Habermann will take on long-serving incumbent Rowan Ramsey, the government whip.

Ms Habermann stunningly secured a 23.1 per cent swing at the March 19 state election in the Eyre Peninsula seat of Flinders, which she lost to Liberal Sam Telfer by 1263 votes.

The vast electorate of Grey covers more than 92 per cent of South Australia’s area – all of the north – and includes the Eyre and Yorke peninsulas at its southern end.

Independent candidate Liz Habermann. Picture: Supplied

Confirming her candidacy, Ms Habermann said Grey had been neglected because it was a safe Liberal seat – Mr Ramsey has a 13.3 per cent margin.

“I am running as an independent to give the people of Grey a choice that benefits people in the region,” she said.

Ms Habermann said she was focused on the economy, small business and investment in roads and regional infrastructure.

“With change, imagine the possibilities for the future of our health system, aged and childcare, education, farming, seafood and aquaculture, hospitality and tourism,” she said.

“What is happening with jobs, the impacts of climate change, our young people, the future of our country, our First Nations communities, housing and family wellbeing?”

Mrs Habermann has accused the Liberals of taking the area for granted for too long.

“They don’t need to send money our way because we vote for them anyway,” she said, after the Flinders contest.

“I realised I needed to put my hand up and offer people that change. (The Flinders result) shows that many other people are feeling the same way.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison with Energy Minister Angus Taylor and member for Grey, Rowan Ramsey. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dean Martin.

Mr Ramsey, a Kimba farmer, was elected in 2007, taking over from Barry Wakelin, who won Grey for the Liberals from the ALP in 1993.

Despite securing a 13.3 per cent margin at the 2019 federal election, Mr Ramsey is considered vulnerable to a strong independent campaign.

At the 2016 election, the Nick Xenophon-backed Andrea Broadfoot secured 48.05 per cent of the two-party preferred vote in Grey, to Mr Ramsey’s 51.95 per cent.

Mrs Habermann oversees the business operations of the family-owned Wudinna Bakery, about 200km west of Whyalla and 360km northwest of Adelaide.

Independents financially supported by the Climate 200 group, backed by businessman Simon Holmes a Court, are contesting Liberal seats across the country, including Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s seat of Kooyong and Boothby, a southwestern Adelaide marginal.

Mrs Habermann’s key backer, thus far, is prominent barrister Marie Shaw, QC, who grew up at Warrachie, south of Lock, and retains family property there.

Ms Shaw’s role was triggered by her opposition to the 2019 closure of a rail line running through central Eyre Peninsula, which she argued the United States operator had walked away from a lease with 20 years to run, passing on road transport costs to taxpayers.

Mrs Habermann’s bid to enter politics was spurred by her support for proposed voluntary assisted dying laws, after her 19-year-old son Rhys took his own life in 2017. He suffered from Ewing sarcoma (cancer) and did not want to go through palliative care.

She joined a euthanasia vigil outside Adelaide’s Parliament House last June, ahead of the controversial passage of a voluntary assisted dying bill

Liz Habermann holds a photo of her son Rhys, who took his own life when he suffered from cancer, at a euthanasia vote vigil on the steps of Parliament House on June 9, 2021. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Analysis: Can baker make Liberals brown bread?

The entry of a prominent and successful independent to the contest for Grey is a nightmare scenario for the Liberals and incumbent Rowan Ramsey.

Wudinna Bakery manager Liz Habermann has proven her ability to strip votes from the Liberals in a safe seat, albeit at a vastly smaller scale in the Eyre Peninsula seat of Flinders.

Grey covers most of SA’s landmass and includes the Eyre and Yorke peninsulas. Independents have secured state seats in substantial parts of the electorate.

At the March 19 state poll, Geoff Brock ousted the-then Liberal deputy premier Dan van Holst Pellekaan in Stuart, which extends from the Spencer Gulf to the NT border in the north and Queensland and NSW borders in the east.

Former Liberal Fraser Ellis won his Yorke Peninsula seat of Narungga as an independent, albeit with backing from Liberals including former senator Alan Ferguson.

Grey’s biggest city, Whyalla, has been a Labor stronghold and, at the height of its population, propelled ALP candidates to victory. Labor preferences will flow to Mrs Habermann ahead of the Liberals.

Her campaign platform targeting rail closures and mobile phone black spots is likely to appeal beyond Eyre Peninsula.

This means Mrs Habermann has a realistic prospect of success, even if this remains a tall order.

But the Liberals now face strong contests in three of their four SA federal seats, forcing them to divert resources that might have been allocated elsewhere.

If the cards fall against them, as they did at the state election, the Liberals would be left with just one SA federal seat: Barker, now held by Tony Pasin with a 18.9 per cent ­margin.

Originally published as SA Liberal Rowan Ramsay faces last minute threat Liz Habermann confirms she will contest Grey