Senator Nick Xenophon is promising to set the cat amongst the pigeons in the 2016 federal election by running Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) candidates in each of South Australia’s lower house seats.

Despite being one the smallest states in the federation, with 11 seats out of 150 in the House of Representatives, SA will be a key battleground, with the new submarines contract and the impending Holden plant closure already key issues.

The popular independent senator told reporters this week that NXT candidates would be drawn from the political centre.
“The ambition is to run in all 11 lower house seats and if the election is held some time next year I expect that’s what we’ll have,” he said.

Xenophon has called on the federal government to honour its commitment to building 12 new submarines in Port Adelaide’s ASC shipyard.

“I’ve urged the government to be consistent to fulfil their election promise and to stop this nonsense of even flirting with the idea of building subs overseas,” he said.

State Labor Premier Jay Weatherill, keen to offer Prime Minister Tony Abbott advice this week, told the ABC that the Liberal party would face carnage at the next election if they failed to stick to their commitment to build the submarines locally.

“If they don’t get this decision right, the people of South Australia will respond, I think very assertively, at the ballot box,” he said.

The premier added that Liberal MP Matt Williams, currently holding the seat of Hindmarsh, “would be gone at about half past six” on election day.

Failure to deliver on the submarines tender, analysts believe, could see the Nick Xenophon Team reap rewards at the expense of the major parties.

ANU Emeritus Professor John Warhurst told the ABC that the NXT alliance could threaten what are considered relatively safe seats.
“If he and his team standing in the lower house are polling anywhere near how he himself has managed to poll in the Senate … in the mid-20 per cent range, then he’s a threat to both sides of major party politics,” he said.

The seat of Mayo, held by Liberal frontbencher Jamie Briggs by a 12.5 per cent margin, is one that could possibly fall to a strong NXT candidate.

Last month Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne dismissed polling by the CFMEU that found a Xenophon Team candidate would get 38 per cent of the primary vote in the Adelaide seat of Sturt, compared to 30.8 per cent for Mr Pyne and 17.4 per cent for Labor.

Mr Pyne, who holds Sturt with a margin of more than 10 per cent, said he instantly dismissed data produced by the CFMEU.