Former South Australian senator Nick Xenophon has intervened in the state election campaign – but not to help his former SA Best team.
Mr Xenophon – who is working as a lawyer – is helping independent MP Frances Bedford in her campaign for the seat of Newland, SA's most marginal electorate.
He has made a formal complaint about Liberal Party leaflets that say Ms Bedford would support the Labor Party.
"I'm here as a lawyer, I've kept out of the state election campaign," he said.
"I'm here to do a job for Frances Bedford because the Liberal Party has done a job on her and we want the law to intervene to protect electors from being misled and to stop an unfair outcome."
Mr Xenophon has not been involved in the campaign for SA Best, the party he founded ahead of the 2018 State Election.
"They haven’t asked me," he said.
"I wish everyone well, basically – some more than others – but I haven’t had any involvement.
Ms Bedford, a former Labor MP who left the party in 2017, said she engaged Mr Xenophon after her electorate office received calls about the flyer.
"My constituents started ringing me when they started getting it in their letterboxes and they were all horrified," she said.
"Some people who started getting it had never seen me or heard of me (and) thought that I was the Labor candidate as well.
"So it became apparent to me I had to do something and who else in this state knows more about electoral material than Mr Xenophon and I was extremely lucky he agreed to help me."
The Electoral Commission is considering whether the leaflets breach the Electoral Act.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the state Liberal Party said it "stands by the statement that a vote for Frances Bedford risks Labor's reckless spending".
"She is a former Labor MP, who has continued to vote with Labor and who has not declared what her preferences are," the statement said.
