Liberal stronghold of Boothby on brink of Labor capture for first time since 1949
Labor hasn’t held Boothby since it switched to the fledgling Liberals in the first half of last century. But now a lot has changed.
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When Boothby was last held by Labor in 1949, the Communist Party was contesting Port Adelaide and the Senate, while men’s suits were advertised in The News for just 12 pounds.
Ahead of the December 1949 poll, the Liberal Country League campaign director, Mr A.S Dunk, declared: “This will be the most vital election the people have ever had to face.”
Labor’s Thomas Sheehy, a former signalman in the Royal Australian Naval Brigade during World War I, had held Boothby from 1943 to 1949.
After an electoral redistribution in 1949 turned Boothby into a notionally Liberal seat, Mr Sheehy switched electorates and unsuccessfully contested the new notionally Labor seat of Kingston.
Since that 1949 election, the southeastern Adelaide federal seat has been a Liberal stronghold, held for more than three decades by father-and-son team John McLeay Snr and Jnr, from 1949-66 and 1966-81 respectively.
A former Unley mayor and state MP, as well as an Adelaide Lord Mayor, Sir John “Jack” McLeay went on to become Speaker from 1956-66, serving under the Menzies and Holt governments.
Before politics, he and brother George started a family business shortly after returning from World War I that evolved into McLeay Carpets, now a fourth-generation SA firm.
When he retired at the 1966 election, Sir John’s son, John McLeay Jnr, also a former Unley mayor, took over Boothby.
He went on to become a minister in the Fraser government, holding Construction and Administrative Services portfolios, before resigning from parliament in 1981. He was Australia’s Consul General to Los Angeles from 1981-83.
Former premier and senator Steele Hall then held Boothby from 1981 to 1996, when he retired from a lengthy and distinguished political career.
Boothby also was the abortive launch pad for Robert Hill’s failed 1994 bid to move from the Senate to the lower house, which prompted speculation he sought to replace the then-federal Liberal leader and fellow South Australian Alexander Downer.
More recently, it’s been the carrot to Labor’s donkey, in the words of one powerbroker, as the ALP repeatedly tried and failed to wrest it from Liberal clutches.
Dr Andrew Southcott, the 27-year-old surgical registrar who defeated Senator Hill at the 1994 preselection imbroglio, went on to win Boothby in 1996.
Despite being unfairly mocked as a political dilettante by internal and external rivals alike,
Dr Southcott was re-elected six times, fending off concerted Labor challenges from opponents including the high-profile Nicole Cornes in 2007.
He retired before the 2016 election, adeptly handling the dismount from politics and helping engineer Nicolle Flint as his replacement.
Ms Flint, who is retiring on Saturday after two terms, infamously has been subjected to “repetitive, sickening, sexist, misogynistic abuse”, which she condemned in her valedictory speech in February.
She called on the left of politics, particularly Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, to act and show leadership on the issue of women’s safety in public life.
“I want to be very clear about the sort of behaviour that I’m talking about.
“Men on the left, some of whom are public figures of influence, have done the following: they’ve stalked me, suggested I should be strangled, criticised the clothes I wear and the way I look, called me a ‘whiny little bitch’ repeatedly, repeatedly called me ‘weak’, ‘a slut’, ‘a dickhole’ – I apologise for the language – and much, much worse over email, online, on YouTube, on Facebook and on Twitter,” Ms Flint told parliament.
Her retirement has left the Liberals facing their biggest challenge yet in Boothby without an incumbent MP.
Opinion polls suggest the seat will return to Labor for the first time in almost 73 years.
But Australia’s most experienced and successful living political campaigner, former prime minister John Howard, has said he would not be surprised to see Liberal candidate Dr Rachel Swift succeed against the odds.
Mr Howard has visited every state except Tasmania during this election campaign and campaigned with Dr Swift in Mitcham on May 5.
“Of all the new candidates she was better known on the street than anyone else,” he told The Australian.
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