Ex-husband denies threatening to contact Libs over Rebekha Sharkie

Centre Alliance candidate Rebekha Sharkie has revealed she had to call the Australian Federal Police on her former husband.

Centre Alliance candidate Rebekha Sharkie campaigns in Adelaide. Picture: AAP

Centre Alliance candidate Reb­ekha Sharkie, just days away from a by-election in the South Australian federal seat of Mayo, has opened up about the impact of political life on her family, revealing how she had to call the Australian Federal Police on her former husband.

During an emotional interview with The Australian yesterday, Ms Sharkie alleged that soon after being elected for the Nick Xenophon Team at the 2016 election, her ­former husband, Kain Selby-­Fullgrabe, threatened to “contact the Liberals” with damaging ­material about her.

Ms Sharkie did not elaborate, but said: “It’s incredibly frustrating when you’re up against a big party machine … and they are trying to do everything they possibly can to discredit you.”

Mr Selby-Fullgrabe and Ms Sharkie have joint custody of their daughter, 13, and two sons aged 16 and 18. “I had to call the Australian Federal Police and they had to go up and visit him,” Ms Sharkie said.

Mr Selby-Fullgrabe denied threatening his ex-wife, but conceded he should not have contacted her at the time.

He said Ms Sharkie “took many things out of context”.

“There were some texts exchanged (about family matters), but there was nothing threatening about it at all,” he said.

“There were never any threats there … the police basically said that if they got called out again, they’d take me in.”

Ms Sharkie and Mr Selby-­Fullgrabe separated about a decade ago. Mr Selby-Fullgrabe was last year convicted and fined more than $34,000 after his company, Town and Country Building Management, did not complete work for which it was paid.

The Adelaide Magistrates Court heard that Mr Selby-­Fullgrabe agreed to refund the ­deposits, but failed to do so.

In 2015, soon after the sudden death of his second wife, Mr Selby-Fullgrabe was threatened with bankruptcy action over unpaid school fees. Mrs Selby-Fullgrabe was 35 years old when she died of a rare heart condition.

Ms Sharkie, who has since remarried, previously worked for former Liberal Mayo MP Jamie Briggs, who she ousted in 2016, and one-time SA Liberal leader ­Isobel Redmond.

The Liberal Party continued to spread “blatant lies” about her parliamentary voting record, which Liberal candidate Georgina Downer repeatedly raised as proof of her “alliance” with Labor and the Greens, Ms Sharkie said.

She said it was frustrating running against a major party “with millions of bucks in its pockets”.

“You know that there is no legislative protection around truth in advertising when it comes to politics,” Ms Sharkie said.

“A lot of people say to me when they see those ugly posters and when they see the lies written about you, ‘geez, how do you do it?’

“(But) what they actually say is ‘I’m very grateful you’re doing it, I wouldn’t have the courage to do it, stand up to the big machine’.

“I take comfort that they’ve done this to Cathy McGowan, Bob Katter and Andrew Wilkie, so I know I’m not alone — it’s just the Liberal playbook. This is not an easy job to do. I don’t think there has been a week where I haven’t worked upwards of 70 hours, but you need to do that to do the job well and … I have a really solid family unit around me.”

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton yesterday campaigned alongside Ms Downer, who has returned to her home state after 20 years to contest the seat her ­father Alexander Downer held from 1984 to 2008.

Mr Dutton attacked Ms Sharkie over her support for Labor’s ­border protection policy.

“Why Rebekha Sharkie is ­opposed to the Turnbull government’s strong border protection policies is something that she needs to explain to the people of Mayo,” he said. “It’s clear to all of us that Labor and Rebekha Sharkie pose a great threat to our strong border protection policies.

“Rebekha Sharkie has sided with the Greens and with Bill Shorten on every key decision to oppose us on our tough border-protection policies.”

Ms Downer has previously criticised Ms Sharkie over her calls for an end to indefinite offshore detention and for asylum-seekers to be resettled in New Zealand. Ms Sharkie said she supported the government’s strong stance on border protection but said there needed to be greater transparency regarding Australia’s ­detention centres on Manus ­Island and Nauru.

A YouGov-Galaxy poll this week had Ms Sharkie leading Ms Downer 59-41 per cent on two-party-preferred — almost the same result to three earlier polls.