South Australian election: Xenophon slams ‘insipid, lethargic’ Liberal campaign

Political kingmaker Nick Xenophon has blasted the South Australian Liberals’ campaign, saying Labor had all the momentum going towards the March 19 election.

Nick Xenophon. Picture Roy VanDerVegt

Political kingmaker Nick Xenophon has blasted the South Australian Liberals’ campaign as “inept” and “lethargic” and said Labor had all the momentum going towards the March 19 election.

Mr Xenophon - a former balance of power senator and state MP who was once regarded as SA’s preferred premier - offered a withering assessment of what he called the Liberals’ failure to campaign on their own terms.

He said they were letting Labor “get away with murder” including campaigning against policies they had introduced themselves while in office prior to the Liberal victory in 2018.

The result of the election on Saturday week will stem in large part from what happens to the 22 per cent of votes that were cast for minor parties at the 2018 SA election - the vast bulk of them for Mr Xenophon’s SA Best party, which ran candidates in every seat.

“I don’t have a dog in this fight and it’s got nothing to do with me, but I think the government is squandering the benefits of incumbency and playing catch-up,” Mr Xenophon said.

“They are not building on their strengths, they are not counterpunching, they are insipid and lethargic.”

Mr Xenophon said he believed the biggest weakness in the Liberal campaign was its failure to make the economic case for the $663m Adelaide Entertainment Centre announced in last year’s budget.

He said the Liberals had seemed afraid to campaign for the project and had never countered Labor’s decision to oppose it and redirect the full build cost to the health system.

“The stadium is hurting them because the contrast with health resonates with voters,” Mr Xenophon said.

“It is not a stand-alone issue; it’s one of those things that feeds people’s suspicions that the government is out of touch.

“I think all of the momentum is with Labor. The fact that they are in the ascendant position says something about how bad the Liberals are at politics and how good Labor are at politics.”

Liberal strategists dismissed the criticism with one party figure saying Mr Xenophon’s assessments were “of limited value given the way he crashed and burned at the last election”.

Mr Xenophon insisted he was not taking sides nor endorsing anyone but believed the Liberals were getting out-campaigned.

He said one of the worst features of their campaign was that they had allowed Labor to go unchallenged on issues that became problems during Labor’s 16-year rule prior to the 2018 election.

He said the most obvious example was the law-and-order policy announced on Monday by Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas, which Mr Xenophon said was “straight out of the Mike Rann tough on crime playbook”, in reference to the former Labor premier who campaigned on anti-crime policies.

The policy announced by Mr Malinauskas introduces tough new penalties for child sex offenders including indefinite incarceration for second-time offenders who cannot demonstrate that they can control their urges.

“The irony of all this is that it was actually Labor who weakened the parole laws when they were in office,” Mr Xenophon said.

“Some of the stuff Labor is getting away with is enough to make your head spin like Linda Blair in The Exorcist. They’re getting away with murder. It’s like the past doesn’t exist and the Libs aren’t pulling them up on it.”

Mr Xenophon’s political career came to an abrupt halt with the SA Best campaign in 2018 when he overextended himself running in every seat and falling short himself in the seat of Hartley.

The SA Best party still exists but is only an upper house force at this election, its ticket being headed by Ian Markos, past chief executive of the Master Builders Association.

Mr Xenophon has returned to the law since leaving politics but has floated the prospect of a return to federal politics at this year’s election, in part in protest at what he calls the lack of federal government support for a small Sydney ugg boot maker in a legal battle with American shoe giant Deckers.