Published: 4 November 2022
Last updated: 5 March 2024
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.
“We can’t be the Liberal Party of the past. We have to be a more modern party."
“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.
