Nick Xenophon Team

Nick Xenophon Team

Leader	Nick Xenophon
Founded	2014
Headquarters	653 Lower North East Road, Paradise SA 5075
Ideology	Centrism Third Way Social liberalism Environmentalism ^[1]
Political position	Centre^[2]
Colours	Orange and Black
Slogan	Politics, done differently
Senate	1 / 76
SA Legislative Council	1 / 22
Website
www.nxt.org.au
Politics of Australia Political parties Elections

Nick Xenophon Team is a centrist Australian political party founded by Senator Nick Xenophon on 1 July 2013.^[3] Upon launching the party, Xenophon said his motivation was "the electorate's lack of trust in politics and voter disillusionment".^[4] NXT will make its national debut at the next Australian federal election.

History

NXT Candidates for the next federal election

The selection process for NXT candidates at the next Australian federal election has been called "exhaustive", with senatorial candidate for South Australia and campaign manager Stirling Griff being largely responsible. InDaily reporter Tom Richardson called Griff "the NXT equivalent of Labor’s infamous faceless [man]".^[8] In a later article, however, Richardson called it "a two-man team" of selectors (Griff and Xenophon).^[9] According to Griff, NXT aimed to field candidates that had "real life experience", as opposed to "celebrities... academics... [or] political groupies".^[10] These comments are reflected in the composition of NXT candidates for the next election, with one third of them coming from a 'small business', 'grassroots' background.^[11]

Xenophon confirmed in December 2014 that by mid-2015 Nick Xenophon Team would announce candidates in the South Australian Liberal seats of Sturt, Hindmarsh and Mayo, along with seats in all states and territories, and preference against the government in the upper house, at the next federal election, with Xenophon citing the government's ambiguity on the Collins class submarine replacement project as motivation.^[12]

Nick Xenophon Team has announced it will run candidates in the seats of Adelaide, Boothby, Calare, Groom, Higgins, Hindmarsh, Kingston, Lindsay, Macarthur, Makin, Mayo, Moreton, Port Adelaide and Sturt. Senate candidates will be run in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia. Further candidate announcements are to be made in 2016.^[13]

Polling

In June 2014, polling in the seat held by Christopher Pyne - a major figure in the Liberal Party - indicated that an NXT candidate would have beaten him 38% to 31% in primary vote.^[14] This was before Tony Abbott was replaced by Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister. A January 2016 opinion poll conducted in South Australia by Roy Morgan found that NXT was slightly ahead of the Australian Labor Party, which is presently the opposition party to the governing Liberal Party of Australia.^[15] A February poll for the next South Australian Election indicated a similar amount of support (20.5%), but with NXT third behind the ALP.^[16] Nationally, however, NXT is polling at 1.5-2% according to the same pollster.^[17]^[18] ABC election analyst Antony Green believes that NXT could attract some 10-12% of the vote in the eastern states.^[19] Griff believes that a double dissolution election could see as many as six NXT senators elected.^[20] A 15 January 2016 article in the Sydney Morning Herald argued that NXT's debut national election had been undermined by the rise of Turnbull.^[21] However, polling conducted since the change of Prime Minister indicated NXT support had only fallen by 0.2% in votes for the lower house, while support rose by 4% in the Senate. ^[22]

Commentators

Aboriginal leader and renowned academic, Noel Pearson, voiced his public support of Nick Xenophon's "centrist" position in the Australian political landscape.^[23] The Sydney Morning Herald called Pearson's speech a "ringing endorsement" of NXT.^[24]

"[Xenophon] will be the target of a massive negative and personal campaign by Labor and Liberal. One Labor MP has already decided on a policy of “put Xenophon last” [in relation to preferences]... [M]y feeling is that Nick Xenophon may well play a major role" − Professor Dean Jaensch on the next Australian federal election^[25]

NXT has attracted strong criticism from the Liberal Party. In 2015, soon after becoming Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull intimated that NXT would struggle to overcome the deficiencies of its leader, adding "Nick’s track record to date is that when he last ran with a running mate, he and [ Ann Bressington ] split up".^[26] Education Minister Simon Birmingham attacked NXT candidate for the seat of Mayo, Rebekha Sharkie, for seeking the support of a farming group who had previously supported far right One Nation founder Pauline Hanson.^[27] Xenophon rejected these claims as the group in question had not endorsed One Nation, but merely spoke "at an event".^[28]

References

External links

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