Blatantly Partisan Party Review VI (federal 2025): Centre Alliance
Running where: Division of Mayo (SA). That’s all. Former Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick is standing for the Jacqui Lambie Network.
Prior reviews (including as the Nick Xenophon Group/Team): federal 2013, federal 2016, federal 2019, federal 2022
What I said before: “I don’t live in the Division of Mayo, and if you do, there’s a good chance you have a much better idea of what Sharkie stands for and how good a local representative she is than I do. I now mentally group her with high-profile indie incumbents (e.g. Helen Haines in Indi) rather than with a party. Looking from a distance, she seems reliably centrist.” (federal 2022)
What I think this year: I’ve been tossing up whether to even review Centre Alliance. It is literally now just a re-election vehicle for Rebekah Sharkie in Mayo. At least in 2022, there was nominally one Senator left representing Centre Alliance, Stirling Griff, though for re-election he ran second on a very doomed independent ticket with Nick Xenophon that managed to win only 2.99% of the vote (see my 2022 review linked above for more details). Leo Puglisi at 6 News interviewed Sharkie last week and asked her why the party is still registered (from 14:15 in the video): her answer boiled down to the fact that disestablishing the party structure required more paperwork and wrangling with the bank than simply keeping it and using it as her banner. For all intents and purposes, Sharkie is an independent. The Centre Alliance website is goneburger, her web presence is based around her as an independent with the slogan “Make Mayo Matter”, and her website does not mention the party name—even in presenting her electoral background.
But I am a completist. Other than the major parties, who are not worth the bother reviewing for my average reader, I have tried to review every party nationwide, even going the extra mile to review unregistered parties that are endorsing nominally independent candidates. So, how could I leave out Centre Alliance when they are registered with the AEC? I could not. If neither major party wins a majority, her vote could prove significant for forming government, so I think it's worth knowing something about her even if you don’t live in the Division of Mayo.
Sharkie is a fairly classic centrist who once supported the Australian Democrats and who was briefly a member of—and an employee for—the SA Liberal Party. If it weren’t for the factionalism within the SA Liberals, or the party’s repeated problems with misogyny that have driven away a large chunk of at least two generations of professional middle-class women with centrist or moderate politics, she might well still be in the Libs. But instead Sharkie joined Nick Xenophon’s party, won Mayo in 2016, and has defended her seat ever since.
What does Sharkie offer this time around? Well, her website is very short on policy details. But as an MP, she is strong on community engagement—you don’t hold a seat this long as an independent without spending a lot of time pounding the pavement or advocating for local interests. As is fitting for someone originally elected for a party formed by anti-pokies campaigner Nick Xenophon, Sharkie has pushed for gambling reform, working alongside the more left-wing independent MP for Clark, Andrew Wilkie, to seek implementation of recommendations from the “You win some, you lose more” parliamentary report issued in June 2023 after an inquiry into the effects of gambling.
Sharkie has also taken a strong interest in aged care policy, regional housing issues, and greater funding for regional healthcare services. She’s promoted the “Keep Cash” campaign, which I think is about as silly as a “Keep Cheques” campaign would be; sorry, folks, cash is much less popular than it used to be and if a business does not think it is economical or worthwhile to keep accepting payments in cash, that’s their call. I’m not sure people (strangely, including some business owners) realise there are costs associated with cash just like there are with providing for electronic payments. Cheques faded away, and if cash does too then I won’t lament its demise an awful lot.
What will Sharkie do if no party has a majority after this election? She has indicated she is not committed to supporting either major party and would see what she can win for Mayo in return for her support, but that she would likely talk first with the Liberal Party. That is perhaps unsurprising given her background, and she justifies it because the state seats that sit under Mayo are held by non-labour members. That claim is not entirely accurate: most are traditionally Liberal seats (with Kavel in the hands of an ex-Liberal independent), but Leon Bignell, MP for Mawson (entirely within Mayo) has held the seat for Labor since 2006. He is only an independent right now because he is the Speaker of the SA Legislative Assembly; since 2021, the occupant of this role been barred from belonging to a political party outside of election periods. I would suggest that Sharkie first follow the outcome of the notional two-party-preferred count that the AEC calculates between Labor and Liberal, which in 2022 went to Labor in her seat but at her previous victories favoured the Liberals.
(One final aside for the election campaign nerds: Sharkie still uses some of the orange branding that Centre Alliance used to deploy more widely.)
Recommendation: If you are a Mayo voter, I recommend placing Sharkie below the Labor and Greens candidates but above the Liberal candidate and definitely above the candidates for Family First, One Nation, and Trumpet of Patriots. Let’s call that a “middling preference” for the sake of my recommendation schema with which I tag every entry.
Website: https://www.rebekhasharkie.com.au/