The new member for Stuart, Geoff Brock MP, has expressed shock at the significant support shown by the largely new voters of Stuart after following his Port Pirie hometown across from Frome, toppling incumbent deputy premier Dan Van Holst Pellekaan.
Speaking with Flow on Monday, an emotional Mr Brock said he had campaigned for less than two months in the seat:
“One of the things I didn’t do was go into the new Stuart too early because of the respect that I had for whoever the sitting member is, in this case it was Dan [Van Holst Pellekaan] and also if you go in too early, all of a sudden the community themselves - they know it’s an election coming up, but a lot of people weren’t aware of the boundary changes which was massive in this case here for the new Stuart and the new Frome [electorates].
“The new Frome has been split into two or three different electorates, but it was maybe confusing for the community so I stayed out till the last 5-6 weeks.”
Mr Brock received over 48 per cent of the primary vote to comfortably win ahead of incumbent Liberal Van Holst Pellekaan, on approximately 29 per cent primary vote. Mr Van Holst Pellekaan had held Stuart since 2010, albeit on its former boundaries prior to losing areas to redistributed parts of Frome.
Hear the full interview 36 hours after the close of the polls with Geoff Brock on Flow's podcast player:
Mr Brock was overwhelmed by the strong vote of support from the Stuart public:
“I got a bit emotional because I couldn’t understand why, why people are still following me, because I’m just a normal person and I don’t do anything other than talk to people, listen to people and try and help them out, but certainly I still cannot understand why I’ve still got this fairly large and loyal following.”