Green groundswell in Boothby could end 70-year Liberal run – The Australian Financial Review

Theres been a void there. Theres been a big focus on the big end of town, she says.

Boothby stretches across 115 square kilometres of mainly middle-class southern Adelaide suburbs including Colonel Light Gardens, a smattering of more working-class suburbs such as St Marys and Marion, and pockets of wealthier beachside suburbs including Brighton and Glenelg. Extremely affluent suburbs near its eastern boundary include Kingswood, Springfield and Netherby.

Ecolaterals stores in Brighton and Blackwood are both in Boothby, and Stott says the environment and cost-of-living increases are front of mind among her customers.

Any time we talk about the environment, thats a political conversation, she says.

The environment and doing much more on climate change is a big issue. Housing affordability and cost of living pressures is another. Inflation is on the march among her suppliers, who have lifted their prices by 5 to 30 per cent in the past few months. Weve tried to absorb the last round of increases, Stott says. About 25 per cent of sales at Ecolateral come from online.

Boothbys sitting Liberal MP Nicolle Flint is retiring from politics after two terms. She used her final speech to call for more protection for women in federal parliament from offensive and intimidating behaviour, and was also a vocal critic of large social media platforms for not doing more to prevent online harassment and abuse.

With Flint bowing out, Boothbys Liberal candidate is medical researcher Dr Rachel Swift. She is a Rhodes Scholar who did a doctorate in clinical medicine at Oxford University.

Labors candidate is Louise Miller-Frost, who was the chief executive in SA of charity organisation St Vincent de Paul Society and had earlier in her career been the boss of Catherine House, an emergency accommodation and services provider for homeless women.

An independent candidate, Jo Dyer, the director of the Adelaide Writers Week component of the Adelaide Festival of Arts from 2019 to 2022, is also commanding some of the spotlight. Dyer has been a fierce public advocate of a deceased friend, Kate, who had accused former federal minister Christian Porter of rape in the late 1980s. Porter strenuously denies the allegations, and is himself retiring from politics.

Dyer is part of a group of independents running in various seats around Australia with a focus on climate change and establishing a federal integrity commission, backed by Voices Of campaign groups.

Election watchers such as Flinders University adjunct professor of politics Haydon Manning are closely scrutinising whether there will be any residual spillover from the thumping state election victory by Peter Malinauskas, who became Premier on March 19. He turfed Steven Marshall out as premier after just one term of a state Liberal government. SA Liberal Infrastructure Minister Corey Wingard lost his seat of Gibson in the SA election, and it is in Boothby heartland.

On balance, Labor is likely to finally break through in Boothby, Manning says.

But he believes Labor leader Anthony Albaneses blunder in being unable to state Australias unemployment rate might have a bigger influence than Labor hopes, because it is central to economic management.

Its just mind-boggling that he couldnt get that right, he says.

Manning believes strong grassroots campaigning and doorknocking could yet sway the swinging voters who shifted allegiances in the state election. He says some voters may have rid themselves of built-up anger and grumpiness over the COVID-19 pandemic at the state poll, with national issues now more at play.

Manning says four chaotic months when the omicron wave came through just as the state borders opened on November 23, along with the re-emergence of the state Liberal Partys factional problems in the last six months of a four-year term, were the two big factors behind Marshalls demise in the state election.

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Green groundswell in Boothby could end 70-year Liberal run - The Australian Financial Review