Federal election 2016: Turnbull spreads word to marginal

Malcolm Turnbull took to Adelaide’s Jetty Road to meet voters in one of the Coalition’s most marginal seats.

Shrugging off his “harbourside mansion” image yesterday, Malcolm Turnbull took to Adelaide’s Jetty Road to meet voters in one of the Coalition’s most marginal seats.

At the Bayside shopping centre in Glenelg — or “down the bay”, as the locals like to call it — Britt ­Hywood and her friends were happy to welcome the Prime Minister into their regular Friday morning coffee group.

“We got you a flat white, no sugar and it’s beautiful,” one of the group offered Mr Turnbull as he pulled up a seat at Kicco Espresso alongside Ms Hywood and her daughter Scarlett. “Welcome!”

“This is a beautiful part of Adelaide here,” Mr Turnbull said, flanked by Liberal backbencher Matt Williams who holds the seat of Hindmarsh in Adelaide’s southwestern suburbs on a 1.9 per cent margin. “And thanks very much for the coffee, very nice indeed.”

Discussing the job-creating ­potential of the government’s ­defence and business policies, Mr Turnbull said he was confident the $50 billion submarine project — a hot-button issue in the state — could mean South Australia became a “magnet” for hi-tech industry and jobs. “In South Australia, the big investment into the defence industry is going to be really transformative,” he said.

He then walked through the Bayside shopping centre to press the flesh with the voters who will be critical to keeping the seat in ­Coalition hands come July 2.

With retirees wishing him good luck, the obligatory selfies and one woman planting a kiss on his cheek, Mr Turnbull’s first shopping centre walk-through was as smooth sailing as the nearby ­waters of Holdfast Bay.

Labor is hoping to snare back the seat that fell to the Liberal Party at the last election, backing former member Steve Georganas, who represented the electorate from 2004 to 2013.

It is one of 11 House of Representative seats in South Australia that have become more unpredictable with the insertion of independent senator Nick Xenophon into the contest.

Mr Turnbull began his first campaign visit to Adelaide with a visit to Boothby, which is being ­vacated by the Liberals’ Andrew Southcott.

After catching a train from the city to the heart of the seat, held by the Coalition on a 7.1 per cent margin, Mr Turnbull announced an $85 million light rail link to be co-funded with the South Australian government.