SA seafood industry leader ‘reasonably confident’ of catching Liberal seat
A prominent seafood industry executive is taking on a traditional Liberal seat, telling InDaily why he’s thrown his catch in with SA Best in the state election battle.
Fifty-six-year-old seafood executive Thomas McNab will run for the Lower House electorate of Flinders in the March state election, contesting the seat currently held by the Liberal’s Sam Telfer.
The long-term resident of Port Lincoln and father of four, who has worked as an abalone diver for 35 years, said that he decided to run because “the people of Flinders feel behind by the major parties”.
Throwing her support behind McNab, SA Best MLC Connie Bonaros said he “is very in sync with the needs of the Flinders community, the seafood sector and those who work the land”.
“He is a man of great principle, aligned with the people-first mantra of SA Best, and fuelled with a desire to serve his community,” she said.
McNab is currently a director on the national board of Abalone Council Australia and a board member of Seafood Industry South Australia.
He also recently stepped down after five years as president of the Abalone Industry Association of South Australia, where he previously also served as vice-president and treasurer.
In addition, he was also the founder and owner of Port Lincoln shed and fencing supplier Sheds for Eyre.
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McNab said the abalone industry was yet to be affected by the harmful algal bloom, but that “it’s something that we’re waiting for with bated breath and we’re very concerned about”.
He praised the Malinauskas Labor government’s response to the ecological crisis, saying that they had addressed concerns of the seafood industry.
“I can’t say that they’ve put a foot out of place with that,” he said.
He said if he had any criticism of the government’s response, it would be “the mis-messaging and the lack of connection that the bureaucratic system seems to have”.
Another priority for the seafood industry was cost recovery, which the state government committed to as an election promise.
“That is really desperate. We need a reset. The benchmarking that sat inside the cost recovery process was set many, many years ago,” McNab said.
“It was unbalanced, and it was an unfair system. It truly needed to be reviewed …”.
The political newcomer said that safety was a top issue for his community, with trucks delivering grain passing through Port Lincoln and causing roads and highways to deteriorate.
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Other issues included building more houses to address the housing crisis, water security at Streaky Bay and Elliston, the lack of a police station at Cummins, and the inaccessibility of the Tumby Bay jetty, which he said is the “soul” of the town.
“What needs to happen is we need more funding here to maintain and facilitate the needs of the community,” he said.
Asked why he believes SA Best was the best answer to these problems, he said that “the core values of SA Best are fundamental to traditional values and looking after people” and his style of advocacy jived with that of Bonaros.
“I take the approach that, rather than banging their fist on the table and taking the hardline, combative approach, you’re better off taking a collaborative and constructive approach to work through difficult issues,” he said.
McNab said SA Best MLC Connie Bonaros approached him a few weeks ago to be a candidate after he’d stepped down as president of the abalone society.
“I suppose we spoke through the difficulties that we see that the seat of Flinders has and its current representation, and thought that we’d make a good team in moving forward, in trying to deal with these issues and then a strong voice and advocacy for Flinders,” he said
When asked if he is ready for the long hours politics involves, McNab said it was more conducive now that his children were aged from 15 to 22 years and he had recently stepped back as president of the abalone society.
McNab said he was “reasonably confident” he could win the seat, saying that he has had “great” feedback to his candidacy so far.
“Most of the comments of feedback that I had were, again, we’re just tired that nothing seems to happened and it’d be good to have a different style of representation,” he said.
Asked one thing he would like changed in politics, McNab said he hopes to see an end to pork barreling.
“If I can wave a magic wand, I would like to see funding allocated to communities and areas on merit as opposed to manipulating or taking advantage of a seat purely for votes,” he said.
Flinders MP Telfer said: “I am proud to have been a strong advocate for our community throughout my term, on key issues for our region, such as road funding, a better health system, safer communities, and water infrastructure investment right across our region.”
“I have consistently worked alongside my community, talking with individuals and families across our region, and I am proud of all we’ve achieved in this term of parliament, such as the Ceduna Area School special needs classroom and crucial road infrastructure investment in Port Lincoln, despite working from Opposition,” he said.
Yesterday, Sarah Game announced AFL hall of famer Chris McDermott was standing for Fair Go in the knife-edge seat of Norwood.
