TREASURER Rob Lucas dismissed notions the State Liberals will strongly move to unseat Mount Gambier MP Troy Bell at the 2022 election, saying the party’s highest priority will be marginal metropolitan seats.
The South Australian Liberal Party’s election strategy documents, obtained by InDaily, reveal the Mount Gambier is one of eight “target” seats at the next election.
According to the document, the party will focus on Mount Gambier, six swing seats – Badcoe, Hurtle Vale, Mawson, Torrens and Wright, as well as the Port Piriebased seat of Frome, currently held by independent MP Geoff Brock.
However, Mr Lucas sought to minimise the party’s focus at the upcoming polls, saying most resources would be directed to Labor-held seats in the city.
“Our highest priority as a party and a government is pinching seats off the Labor Party – our political opponents – in the metropolitan areas,” he said.
“The whole focus on volunteer coordinators and those sorts of things are geared towards marginal seats in the metropolitan area.
“The notion of non-government held seats such as Frome and Mount Gambier would be much a lower order of priority.”
According to InDaily, Mr Lucas has been appointed to coordinate a campaign to unseat current Member for Mount Gambier and former Liberal MP Troy Bell.
Mr Lucas confirmed he had been nominated as the paired arrangement for the Mount Gambier electorate, but said reports the Liberal Party would strongly target the seat were slightly overstated.
“The reality is, we always have to run a candidate as we did last time … and we will obviously run a candidate to try and get our candidate to win,” he said.
“While Troy supports the government in the parliament on a lot of occasions, there are a number of occasions where he goes with the Labor Party and does not vote with the Liberal Government.
“We will leave it to the very good people of Mount Gambier to make a choice.”
Mr Lucas said the party had not yet endorsed a candidate, saying preselection for the seat was likely to occur after the completion of boundary redistribution, which is expected to be finished in November.
“From the party’s viewpoint, there is no intended candidate,” he said.
“There may be individuals at the local level who intend to nominate when we open up preselection.
“We would open up nominations generally after the redistribution occurs which is in the next few months and anyone who wants to nominate can nominate.
“We would have a local preselection and the local people can decide.”
Mr Bell was elected to the seat of Mount Gambier as a Liberal at the 2014 election, but resigned from the party in August 2017 after being charged for allegedly misusing taxpayer funds during his time as an educator.
He contested the seat as an independent candidate at the March 2018 polls and easily retained the electorate after preferences, strongly leading with more than one-third – 38.7pc – of first preference votes.
Member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell said the region deserved more attention from the two major parties than it currently received.
“I will always support what I believe is in the best interest of the people living in the Seat of Mount Gambier,” Mr Bell said.
“I have always put locals first and will continue to do so no matter who is in government.”
