Tradies Tim Branford and Daniel Cox are eating calamari and chips on a lunch break at the Brighton jetty, a scattering of hopeful seagulls watching on beneath the arch of remembrance.
Branford, a 24-year-old boilermaker, says he is not sure how he is going to vote at the federal election, but he is not impressed with either leader.
“I’m not a massive fan of Scott Morrison, but at the same time I am not huge on Anthony Albanese – to be honest I don’t know a hell of a lot about either,” he says.
“Scott is pretty unpopular at the minute with a lot of the stuff he has done, but I am not really aligned with either side.”
Cox chimes in, agreeing that Morrison is unpopular, but says he still plans to vote for him.
“It is easier to remember the stuff that’s unlikable more than the things that have been done well, and I think there’s been plenty of that,” he says.
Nearby, rocking a pram with her newborn daughter, 33-year-old Nadine from Edwardstown does remember the unlikable stuff, still angry that the pandemic experience kept her separated from family in Denmark.
For her at this election, it is anyone but Morrison.
“I’m looking into it at the moment. It means a lot to me to make the right decision, particularly with my daughter now,” she says, listing climate change as a priority.
“But he is absolutely not an option.”
Sweeping the southern Adelaide plains from the sea to the hills, the marginal seat of Boothby in the city’s southern suburbs has it all.
There are the mega mansions of Springfield, battler suburbs in the middle, comfortable coastal suburbs, and the Greens voting patch of Blackwood. Boothby is a snapshot of Australian suburbia in all its varied glory.
The seat has always been just out of reach for Labor, having been in conservative hands since the 1940s.
But this time around, after a wave of red swept SA at the recent state election –including for the state seats that make up Boothby – there is plenty of Labor optimism.
With the incumbent Nicolle Flint retiring, Labor is throwing everything at winning the seat and polling suggests its candidate, Louise Miller-Frost, is in line for victory.
But the Liberals are not yet writing the seat off, and hope the moderate-aligned Rachel Swift can win back some of the small-l liberals who were put off Flint after a fierce campaign at the last election against her conservative credentials, including on climate change and her support for Peter Dutton.
‘As much personality as earthworms’
Grabbing a coffee at Park Holme shopping centre in the middle of the seat as the morning commute on Marion Road buzzes by, carer Peter Robson says he will be voting Labor at this election, describing Morrison as “pathetic”.
“He’s a liar. No offence mate, people don’t want to say it the way that it is, but the bottom line is he is a liar and doesn’t want to admit it and he gets his wife to defend him,” Robson says.
“My vote will be going to Labor, I’ve had enough of nine years or 10 years of the Liberal party,” Robson says.
Shopping in leafy Blackwood, 73-year-old retired teacher Helen Martin says she is also considering changing her vote after supporting Morrison in 2019, describing his performance since as “ordinary”.
But will she switch her vote to Albanese?
“They both have as much personality as earthworms. Neither comes across as being able to make hard decisions [and] they are basing their election campaigns on dirty politics and populist voting,” Martin says.
She says she was undecided a couple of months ago, but is now leaning towards the independent candidate Jo Dyer, with preferences going to Labor.
“I think Liberal lack relevance and Labor lack imagination.”
Despite the narrow 1.4% margin in the seat, many voters spoken to by Guardian Australia are still undecided, or looking to minor parties for something different.
Hoping to capitalise on this sentiment is Dyer, the outgoing director of the Adelaide Writers’ Festival who became known in political circles as the advocate for Christian Porter’s accuser, Kate.
Dyer, who is backed by Climate 200, says she has detected the “pox on both your houses” mood that has emerged strongly in opinion polls, and says neither party is offering a compelling argument.
“I think there really is an appetite for at least considering alternatives to the major parties this time,” she says, pointing to SA’s historical embrace of third parties and independents such as the Democrats and Nick Xenophon.
“There is a sense that people are not enamoured of Scott Morrison at all, they think he has had his chance and there is that failure to take responsibility … but there is also a sense that they are not inspired by Albo. I think people think he is a decent chap, but there is not that big inspiring narrative from Labor,” she says.
Kristy Knight, 37, from Glengowrie, is one of those who has turned off the major parties after she lost her job by refusing to get vaccinated during the pandemic.
“I haven’t narrowed it down, but the smaller parties are more in line with my current views.”
While the anti-Morrison sentiment is prevalent throughout the seat, there is not a sense that the tide has completely gone out on the Liberal party, and it is difficult to find voters who voted Liberal last time who are switching to Labor.
Arwin Caras, an IT engineer from St Marys, says he has decided to stick with Morrison, whom he supported in 2019.
“I haven’t seen much of the news lately but I am still voting for Scomo,” the 40-year-old says.
“I’ve seen this leaflet comparing what was done from the previous administration, they have details on what Labor has done and what Liberals have done and all are in favour of the Liberals, and so based on that data, I am voting for Scomo,” he says.
“I think he is doing a good job in terms of the economy.”
Roger Koschade, a lifelong Labor voter, is considering voting Liberal for the first time, but is also still undecided.
He says he has been impressed with the credentials of Swift and disappointed with Albanese, whom he describes as a “complete non entity”.
“That couldn’t be more disappointing to me as a Labor man,” he says.
“I just want somebody we can believe in, that is probably the most top of my list,” he says.
“I’m finding it really, really hard because one just says what they’ve done, and the other one just says what they can do.
“Everything just sounds like promises to get your vote. I can’t help but be cynical.”
Letterboxes bursting at the seams
Labor candidate Louise Miller-Frost, a former chief executive of St Vincent de Paul, is door-knocking in Blackwood, down the road from the Waite reserve, where the opposition is promising $1.6m for a playground and park upgrade.
She says climate change action is a priority, but an “enormous” part of the contest is a referendum on Morrison and the Coalition government.
She accuses them of presiding over “nine years of inaction, that is all announcements and media and then no follow-through”.
“I think people are ready for change.
“This is about changing the government. That was really one of my main motivations for running. We’re not going to get any meaningful action on climate change, we’re not going to get a federal Icac, we are not going to get meaningful action on women’s issues while we have Morrison and Joyce, so changing the government is really important.”
Swift, a medical researcher and Rhodes scholar, acknowledges there is frustration within the community, but says she has heard negatives and positives about both Morrison and Albanese.
“The message I would give to people is, it’s much more about a strong team and what issues you want to be delivered on,” Swift says.
“It’s very easy to find any lightning rod as a focal point when people are frustrated, and certainly you see it as a candidate, that’s just a reality.
“But I think we have done a good job. I don’t think any election decision rests solely on past performance. It’s got to be about what are the issues that are going to be front of mind when the ballot box is open, and how we, as a government, can actually deliver on those.”
On climate, she is quick to point out the Morrison government’s commitment to net zero by 2050, but says there is scope to be more ambitious.
“I think there is real opportunity for us to deliver faster, but what I do strongly resonate with is the sense that there has to be a plan.”
As the debate heats up, it’s clear the result could still come down to the wire, with the votes of people like single mother Michelle Trott still up for grabs.
“I keep changing my mind,” the 49-year-old radio promotions worker says.
“As it gets closer, I’ll keep watching to see who is going to actually show us what they’ve got, and then hopefully trust they’re going to do what they say.”
In a sign of the fierce contest for the seat, Trott says her letterbox has been bursting at the seams with campaign material, much of it negative.
“Too much smearing,” she says.
“I don’t like the parties that do the smear campaigns on the other side rather than just tell us what they are going to do. I don’t really like either at the moment. I’ve just completely lost interest to be honest.”
Trott says she will most likely make up her mind when she picks up the pencil in the booth on election day.
“Even then I won’t be sure.”
