Liberal candidate Nicolle Flint believes Boothby is Australia’s best electorate.
“We have Adelaide’s best beaches, the glorious foothills, so many parks, including Belair National Park, which is Australia’s second oldest national park, and so much native vegetation and wildlife. We really are very lucky,” she says.
Boothby, an electorate in Adelaide’s south, is one of two South Australian marginal seats.
Flint is campaigning for the seat for the second time, previously replacing Liberal MP Andrew Southcott in 2016 and holding the seat until her resignation from politics in 2022.
The seat was occupied by the Liberal Party for 73 years, a reign ending in the 2022 federal election with the triumph of Labor MP Louise Miller-Frost.
As a fourth-generation Boothby local, Flint does not “take a single vote for granted”.
“I am determined to do my part to win back the seat and have a change of government because the Albanese Labor Government has failed our local community,” she says.
Boothby Liberal candidate Nicolle Flint (image: supplied)
Flint says a vote for her and the Liberal Party will change “the economic and cost of living crisis created by the Albanese Labor government”.
“The last three years under Labor have hit all Australians hard – our local community in Boothby is no exception,” she says.
“Inflation is high, power bills, food and insurance are all up. Housing is unaffordable and our country is less safe. We’ve had the largest fall in living standards in history.”
In November 2024, Coalition-led analysis of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, confirmed by independent economists, reported real per capita disposable incomes have dropped by 8.7 per cent since March 2022.
Flint says the Coalition has a plan, and the experience, to “deliver a stronger economy for all Australians.”
“Importantly, our plan also includes support for local small businesses, extra incentives for employers to hire apprentices, and a comprehensive plan to increasing housing supply whilst supporting first home buyers,” she says.
“I have never seen our local residents and small businesses in such financial distress … That’s why I’ve been working as hard as I can for our local community for a year now.”
The cost-of-living crisis is not Flint’s only ambition, as she says she will “once again be a fierce advocate for our local community in Boothby”.
Earlier this month, Peter Dutton announced the Liberal Party would invest $840 million into the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass if elected.
The project is stage one of the High Productivity Vehicle Network (HPVN), a development that includes a duplication of the Swanport Bridge, a bypass of Truro, and other upgrades between Monarto and the Sturt Highway.
“The bypass will finally put an end to Labor’s long-standing plan to turn Cross Road into a heavy truck route once the North South Corridor is complete,” Flint says.
The South Australian Malinauskas Labor Government “absolutely rules out progressing these Liberal plans … along Cross Road to create dedicated freight route”, state transport minister Tom Koutsantonis said in a statement in February.
They warn the plan being promoted by Flint would see the compulsory acquisition of 190 homes and businesses near major intersections in Adelaide’s inner south.
“While the Marshall government abandoned its signature Globelink policy and delivered an undercosted and underscoped Truro Bypass plan, we are continuing with detailed planning on a Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass,” Koutsantonis said.
An elected federal Labor government will invest $525 million towards the bypass.
Flint says the Coalition-funded freight bypass “will make the daily commute safer and quicker and protect the people’s health and safety”.
Health has been a focus for Flint since her initial run.
In February 2021, Flint announced she would not contest the seat of Boothby after health issues with her endometriosis.
“I didn’t realise when I left politics how unwell I was — I had to have two major surgeries and then a long struggle to find medication that actually worked,” she says.
Flint says she “has never been fitter or healthier” than during her current election campaign.
“The only reason I am able to run again is because I had a miracle health break through just over 12 months ago … I have finally found medication that is completely managing my endometriosis.”
Nearly one million Australian girls, women, and people assigned female at birth live with endometriosis, according to Endometriosis Australia.
“I have unfinished business when it comes to women’s health and women’s safety so expect to see me fighting hard for women,” Flint says.
Flint’s departure from politics was also influenced by the sexist and misogynistic online harassment she received in the lead-up to the 2019 federal election.
In her outgoing speech as government MP in 2022, Flint said women “will continue to be attacked, abused, belittled, gossiped about and lied about until we have blanket protection that says it’s an offence”.
“I ask [Anthony Albanese] where was he and where was his predecessor and where were the senior Labor women when GetUp, Labor and the union supporters chased, harassed and screamed at me everywhere I went in the lead-up to the 2019 election?” she said.
“This can’t be about politics anymore.”
Now, Flint believes Australian politics have changed for the better.
“I believe there has been some change in Parliament itself, thanks to the implementation of the report by the former Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins,” Flint says.
Jenkins completed an independent review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces in 2021, concluding sexual harassment in Australian workplaces is prevalent and that there were insufficient legal systems in place.
The review led to the parliament passing the Sex Discrimination and Fair Work (Respect at Work) Amendment Bill 2021.
The legislation makes politicians, judges and public servants liable for and protected from sexual harassment in the workplace.
Sexual harassment is also included as grounds for dismissal.
Labor candidate and current Boothby MP Louise Miller-Frost says that conditions for female politicians have improved since the review.
While Miller-Frost was not in the House of Representatives before 2022, she says staffers say conditions have improved since it was declared representatives not speaking after 6:30pm could leave.
“They weren’t rostered to do any work, they were tired, they were exhausted. And, so, they sat around and drank,” Miller-Frost says.
“I think that’s where all the bad behaviour happened, people [were] bored [and] hanging around for no particular reason.”
Despite positive changes, Flint believes women still need further protections.
“I am determined to clean up the online space which is still where women attract horrendous sexualised abuse. It has to stop, and I believe I am the woman to help stop it,” she says.
This time round, Flint says she has “loved every minute of campaigning” and putting her hand up again to represent the community.
“I am determined to continue to serve everyone in our local community – residents, businesses, our wonderful community groups and particularly our surf life savers and our CFS volunteers,” she says.
“We simply cannot afford three more years of Labor.”
