South Australian Election - Ending 17 years of Labor
After a shocking 16 years of Labor government here in South Australia, it’s pretty clear that the ‘festival state’ desperately wants change. What sort of change that is remains to be seen, but undoubtedly Steven Marshall and his Liberal team have put up a fantastic line up of candidates and policies to contest a very important election in this state’s history.
As a downtrodden Canberra Liberal living under a 17-year-old Labor regime, there are some very noticeable parallels between the situation here in South Australia and at home in the ACT. After 16 years of Weatherill/Rann fiscal mismanagement, the state has seen the evaporation of meaningful economic growth and long-term opportunities. Crikey do we need good Liberal governance to electrify the state and get back on track.
On the ground, there is a quintessential Adelaide feel to a lot of the campaigning work. In Glenelg and Brighton, we’ve put in a lot of work zip-tying fantastic double-sized corflutes to the iconic Stogie electrical power poles. Reaching great heights overlooking the beautiful St Vincent Gulf, our message of capping council rates and reopening the repat general hospital is clearly displayed in blue and white.
In Morphett, we have a great candidate in Stephen Patterson. A former mayor with a huge amount of community experience, we’ve letterboxed a range of suburbs with a diversity of demographic backgrounds along the coast. Despite facing a challenge from a Xenophon candidate and a newly Independent incumbent, Patto has put in a huge amount of work to sure up much of the electorate.
Door-knocking in Brighton has been immensely reassuring with so many local residents declaring that Stephen “is our man”, with many having already voted.
Up into the hills to the seat of Waite, we’ve also been helping Sam Duluk MP. Sam is a fantastic MP who is contesting this seat after the 2016 redistribution. It is a very different scene in the hills, and letterboxing and door-knocking is a lot more arduous. But we have many important messages to get out, including the very important diversion of freight trains which many local residents have lobbied for. It was also great to hear about Sam’s involvement in Young Liberal politics, particularly as an NUS delegate to Natcon.
Lastly, we’ve been also working hard for Dan Cregan in the electorate of Kavel. Dan is another excellent candidate with a great background in law. He was also heavily involved in the Young Liberal movement. In his electorate we’ve been hard at work putting up many of his double-sized corflutes and working hard to retain the seat despite some rather unfortunate redistribution.
With under a week to go, things are looking good on the ground. The state clearly wants a change, and with the strong effort by so many Liberal volunteers on the ground it might just swing our way.
Adam Cass is a member of the ACT Young Liberals