According to the South Australian media, Liberal insiders are considering parachuting federal backbencher Matt Williams, currently the member for Hindmarsh, into the safe South Australian Parliament seat of Morphett if he is not returned at next year’s federal election – a feat that is looking increasingly unlikely, particularly if four-term local member Steve Georganas re-enters the fray.
Williams has been described by Tony Abbott as the prime minister’s “favourite South Australian MP” since he defeated the previous Labor incumbent Georganas with a 7.97 per cent two-party-preferred swing at the 2013 election.
However the Liberal incumbent holds Hindmarsh with a wafer-thin majority of just 1.89 per cent, making it the most marginal seat in South Australia.
Meanwhile South Australia’s fourth-term Labor government appears to have opened up an eight-point lead in Newspoll over the Liberal opposition. With the Liberals targeted by Labor as uncertainty over the government’s support for the local shipbuilding industry continues, prospects for Williams’ re-election at federal level appear uncertain in the extreme.
Labor is almost certain to recall Georganas to fight the seat. Party sources told Adelaide’s Independent Weekly newspaper that the former member is the party’s “number one candidate … everyone wants him to run” and that he has effectively “never stopped campaigning” for re-election since losing the seat in 2013.
Mr Georganas told Neos Kosmos it was up to the party to pre-select Hindmarsh’s next Labor candidate.
“I certainly will be willing to assist the ALP in any way that the party sees fit for me to contribute. Either as a candidate, campaign worker or strategist.”
The veteran ALP stalwart added that he would be doing everything he could to ensure that Labor wins the seat back at the next election.
“The good people of Hindmarsh do not need to go through the angst that this current conservative government has put them through – the angst of having pensions reduced, the watering down of Medicare, the Americanisation of the education system, and not committing to building the submarines in South Australia.”