Southwick eyes a difficult race for Caulfield

In the first of a series on candidates for the Victorian state seat of Caulfield, ASHLEY BROWNE talks to incumbent DAVID SOUTHWICK.

David Southwick might be one of the best-known people in Caulfield, but as the Victorian election approaches, he feels like the only kid without a date at the dance.

The 12-year Liberal Party member for Caulfield is bracing for a preference tsunami on November 26, with few of them likely to drift in his direction.

“Unfortunately, I’ve got no friends on election day when it comes to the other parties,’” he told The Jewish Independent in a recent interview at his Balaclava Road headquarters.

“Labor, the Greens, the Animal Justice Party and now the Teals, will all preference against me, so I’ll have to perform strongly to get there. It is going to be really tough.”

He almost got rolled last time. The Liberals ran a horribly misguided campaign across the state, losing 11 seats and among the erstwhile safe Liberal seats that fell were Burwood, Hawthorn, Mount Waverley and Ringwood. Southwick snuck home by just 204 votes after preferences, narrowly avoiding becoming the first sitting Liberal member to lose in Caulfield.

Those numbers mean that Caulfield is now one of the most marginal seats in the state.

“It was absolutely tough to be run so close, but at the same time, we had a four per cent swing against us while the seats around me had eight. If I’d taken that, I’d be absolutely gone,” he said.

Like a footy coach after a shock result, Southwick drilled into the reasons why he was pushed to the brink in 2018. The post-mortem suggests there was widespread distaste for the Liberals across the state and he was almost collateral damage.

In the four years since, Southwick has been among those trying to lead the Victorian Liberals down a more moderate path. Matthew Guy was dumped as Liberal leader after the election but returned to the role in September 2021, this time with Southwick as his deputy.

Whereas the Liberals of 2018 were focused on crime (replete with the obsession over so-called "African gangs"), congestion and corruption, in 2022 it is all about climate, heath, education and transport.

“We can’t be the Liberal Party of the past. We have to be a more modern party that connects with issues, particularly that young people are focused on,” Southwick explained.

The move to the centre comes with risk. Older Liberals, egged on by their favourite late-night Sky News commentators, have accused the state party of becoming a lighter version of Labor. Others are sitting quietly for now, giving Guy, Southwick and others the opportunity to prove them wrong.

“What frightens me is that if we don’t do well, there’s going to be a whole lot of people sitting on the sidelines saying, ‘I told you so, you’ve gone too far, you’ve taken us where we shouldn’t be.’

“In some cases, we have been the ‘Christmas Grinch’, tight on financial stuff without being able to provide the services. But at the state level, people want service delivery. They want their hospitals to be good, schools to be good, police and everything to run smoothly and to do that you have to spend money.

“And being in a leadership role now, the thing I have enjoyed the most is being able to take the party on a journey to become more contemporary with where we need to be as a state,” he said.

State politics is all about retail politics. It is train stations in the morning, community events in the evening and on weekends. Caulfield residents would need to live hermit-like existences to have not seen Team Southwick, out and about in their Liberal blue spray jackets, as soon as the easing of Covid restrictions allowed it. More often than not it, it is Southwick, 54, his wife Hayley and their two children who are most prominent on the hustings.

His door is always open. He wants everyone in Caulfield to feel like they are on first-name terms with their local member. “When someone comes into this office, it is often the last port of call, not the first. They have tried everything else and have had doors slammed in their face, so if we can help them, not that we can all the time, but if you can it’s the best satisfaction to help someone with a challenge.”

Southwick has long been able to call upon the support of most of the Jewish community, but that is changing. The ballot paper will be full of fellow Jews and while he agrees that there are few Jewish wedge issues in this election, he is quick to recount some of his wins for the community such as the statewide Swastika display ban that he helped precipitate and getting the state government to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism.

“I would hope people say that yes, there’s other Jewish candidates but David Southwick has the runs on the board and has been with us through good and bad.”

And he is keen to put a word in for Guy. “He loves the Jewish people. He’s had some people in the Islamic community who hate that he calls himself a Zionist but why he does that is because he’s so into our community and Israel from the first time I took him there.”

Unless your name is Jeff Kennett, you don’t get a third chance to try to lead the Liberals from opposition to government, which begs the question as to whether Southwick has aspirations to take over from Guy if, as the polls predict, the Liberals get beaten once again.

“To be frank, my real focus is to become a minister. I came in 2010 when we were in government and it was a bit like an apprenticeship. I had one year as a deputy minister which was great, but I’ve been in opposition ever since,” he said.

“I feel like we have achieved a lot in opposition but could do more if I had the chequebook to do things.”

But he dare not take his eyes off the battle for Caulfield. He understands why the Teal independents had their appeal at the recent federal election; Southwick himself admits to not being a fan of the campaign run by former prime minister Scott Morrison and the federal Liberal Party but is puzzled as to why the Teals’ main targets at the state election are still the Liberals.

“If they were genuine, they’d be going against Dan Andrews. That’s my sense of it,” he said, anticipating a torrid battle between now and election day.

“I only slithered through last time with the tiniest of margins, and I didn’t have the competition I have now. Combine Labor and now the Teals, that’s a strong force.

“For me, it’s going to be really hard unless there’s a lift in the Liberals primary vote. If we continue to take the smashing we took last time, I’m in a bit of trouble you’d think.”