Former Liberal staffer Chelsey Potter poised to declare she will contest Bragg by-election as an independent candidate

Former Liberal staffer Chelsey Potter is likely to cause trouble for her old party – by contesting the Bragg by-election as an independent candidate.

Former Liberal staffer Chelsey Potter is poised to declare she will contest the Bragg by-election as an independent candidate, posing a threat to her old party in the blue-ribbon eastern suburbs seat.

Ms Potter told The Advertiser on Monday she was making some last-minute calls and consulting with colleagues, and would reach a final decision within the next 24 hours. She would be the only declared female candidate so far, given the Liberals and Greens have preselected men.

“I’m strongly considering it,” she said. “There is a clear desire for choice in this by-election.”

She said she counted herself among “a lot of locals who don’t feel they can support the Liberals in their current state”.

“I’m hearing a lot of frustration. I, myself, am clearly frustrated,” she said.

“The commentary around supporting women to run is plainly disingenuous. Just words, no action.

“I believe many women in Bragg see it for what it is.”

It comes after the Liberals preselected Jack Batty, 31, to contest former deputy premier Vickie Chapman’s seat, leaving just two female Liberal members in the lower house of state parliament.

Mr Batty’s landslide preselection, which flew in the face of an internal push led by Opposition Leader David Speirs to increase female representation, has again inflamed tension from across the factional divide.

Chelsey Potter is set to declare she will run as an independent in Bragg.

It creates the potential for the Liberal vote to be split and create an opening for an independent candidate, along with the Greens, who have declared they believe they can win the seat, and Labor.

Ms Potter, who accused a former party staffer of sexual assault in Canberra, had also sought preselection but the party’s state executive candidate review committee dismissed her application after she “aggressively and actively” campaigned against the Liberals at the recent state and federal polls.

Mr Batty, a lawyer who also worked as an adviser to Australia’s High Commissioner to the UK George Brandis, said the remaining contenders were “four stellar candidates who all did an excellent job”.

“For me, I put my hand up because I think I’ve got something to offer my local community,” he said.

Standing beside the newly-minted candidate, Mr Speirs revealed he did not vote for Mr Batty because he believed a woman should have been selected in the seat.

“I had made it very clear that I was going to support a woman in the preselection,” he said.

Opposition Leader David Speirs did not vote for successful Bragg preselection candidate Jack Batty. Picture: Tom Huntley

“There’s too much hypocrisy in politics and, for me to be saying I’d really like to see more women elected and preselected, and then to vote for a man wouldn’t have been the right thing to do.”

Mr Speirs said the party needed to be more representative of the South Australian community, and vowed to take steps to ensure more women were elected.

“I’m going to be setting up a committee within our party, with women from the parliamentary ranks and women who have had involvement in the party over the years, to help this party find more ways for women to be involved,” he said.

It is understood other moderates who supported female candidates included newly-appointed Opposition Foreign Affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham.

But another senior Liberal accused the faction of having a “cast-iron ear” in selecting Mr Batty.

“After two elections in which the Liberal Party has been resoundingly beaten and the electorate has expressed a desire for more women in politics with real-word experience, replacing Vickie Chapman with a bloke, no matter how close he is to her, is further evidence that the left have learnt nothing from these defeats,” the source said.

A senior moderate hit back, pointing out the only two lower house Liberal women — Ashton Hurn and Penny Pratt — are both moderates, and the conservatives did not preselect a woman for any lower house seat.

“For conservatives to attack moderates over the lack of women is quite hypocritical when they haven’t provided a single woman for the House of Assembly team,” the figure said.

Conservative Liberal candidates at the state election were Rowan Mumford in Kavel, Alexander Hyde in Waite and Sam Telfer in Flinders.

The Greens last week announced their candidate would be community campaigner Jim Bastiras, while Labor sources said lawyer Alice Rolls was likely to installed this week as the party’s candidate.

Originally published as Former Liberal staffer Chelsey Potter poised to declare she will contest Bragg by-election as an independent candidate