Just days out from the federal election, residents of one of Australia's safest seats are feeling forgotten by the major parties.
Sitting in South Australia's south-east, the Division of Barker was home to 118,398 voters in 2019 — more than Ballarat's whole population — and in the 2019 election was the seventh safest seat in Australia.
In the lead up to an election, some of Australia's most marginal electorates had their wishlist answered with promises by the major parties.
But with less than a week until polling day, local voters said politicians were paying less attention to the issues that mattered to them, compared to how strategic political seats were targeted.
The ABC went to the streets in two of the division's largest populated towns — Berri in the north of the electorate and Mount Gambier in the south — to find out what it was like to live in one of Australia's safest seats.
Pleas for a tougher contest
Rebecca Cooper lives in Berri where she said the biggest election issue for her was problems within the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
Ms Cooper said she recently had a financial issue and found there were no mechanisms in place to recover a portion of money that was taken from her total funding allowance.
"There's a lot of problems with handing over [money] to people who coordinate those funds," Ms Cooper said.
She said more competition between the candidates would encourage greater attention to local issues.
"They don't want to stand up and fight and make changes," Ms Cooper said.
A lack of rental properties
Mt Gambier aged care worker Melissa Mckinley said the Liberal Party had shown "no stance" or "any courage" and was failing to address local issues.
"Tony Pasin is going up for his third term," she said.
"He's most likely to take the seat but I don't really see any initiative from him.
"He just seems to follow whatever [Prime Minister] Scott Morrison's policy is."
Ms McKinley said one of the major issues facing people in the region was the housing crisis.
"I don't think anything's been done from either of the major parties there to address the shortage of housing."
'There's no contest'
Mount Gambier local Corey Lovet said the health care system was underfunded and should be prioritised.
"With the sports centre, maybe a bit too much money was allocated for that when other areas such as addiction and rehabilitation are fairly neglected across the whole state," he said.
Mr Lovet has had past battles with addiction, but said he struggled to find support in Mount Gambier and had to travel to the Adelaide Hills for treatment.
"We need more resources for young people to be able to have a pathway into a better future," he said.
Liz from Berri said the federal parties did not address the issues facing regional Australians.
"They put all the attention into the cities; the country is just forgotten," she said.
"Where are the jobs? Everyone's moving because there's no job prospects here."
She said politicians would get a "push" to fight harder for locals if Barker was treated like a marginal seat.
"Things get talked about but nothing's getting really done."
A policy to wipe student loans
Member for Barker Tony Pasin said he was addressing these issues with a number of actions.
One of those was to "announce a policy which says to young medical graduates, 'If you come and work in the regions, we will forgive your HECS debt' [now called the Higher Education Loan Program (HELP)]."
Mr Pasin acknowledged the housing issue but said so many people wanting to enter the housing market demonstrated a strong economy.
Labor candidate for Barker Mark Braes had been spruiking his party's plans to address regional housing and healthcare if elected.
Asked by the ABC if he had made any announcements for Barker since the start of the campaign, he cited a $135 million federal Labor election promise to build 50 urgent care clinics around Australia, with one set for Mount Gambier.
Mr Braes said it was an "understandable concern" for voters to question the lack of attention they received in a safe seat.
"[Political parties] look at where they want to win seats and the resourcing follows that," he said.
"I think that's a concern that people share."
Independents threatening
The federal Liberal Party has held power in Barker since 1946.
In 2019, the Liberal Party won the two-party preferred vote by a margin of 37.8 per cent, in 2016 by 30.38 per cent, and in 2013 by 33 per cent.
But Australian National University Research Fellow Dr Blair Williams said there had been a trend this election where seats considered traditionally safe had been threatened by independent candidates.
"We're seeing things like that be more precarious for those who've held their seats for a long time," she said.
Dr Williams said it could also be due to the "climate crisis or just the fact we've had a Liberal government for nine years".
