Nicolle Flint

Nicolle Jane Flint (born 15 July 1978) is an Australian politician. She is the member for Boothby in South Australia in the Australian House of Representatives. She is a member of the Liberal Party of Australia and succeeded the previous member, Andrew Southcott, at the 2016 federal election.[1]

Nicolle Flint MP
Member of the Australian Parliament for Boothby
Incumbent
Assumed office 2 July 2016
Preceded by	Andrew Southcott
Personal details
Born	15 July 1978 Kingston SE, South Australia, Australia
Political party	Liberal Party of Australia
Alma mater	Flinders University
Occupation	Columnist, political advisor
Profession	Solicitor

Early political involvement

Flint was a member of the Young Liberal Movement from 2000 to 2002 and joined the Liberal Party in 2007.[2] She was a solicitor and newspaper columnist before entering politics, and also worked as an advisor to Malcolm Turnbull and Brendan Nelson.[1] She also worked for the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.[3] In 2015, Flint co-authored a paper for the Menzies Research Centre entitled "Gender and Politics", calling for more female involvement in the Liberal Party.[2][4]

Member of Parliament

First term

Flint was elected to the Australian House of Representatives for the seat of Boothby in 2016, replacing retiring MP Andrew Southcott, who had held the seat since 1996.[4] During her first term, Flint raised awareness in Parliament for endometriosis, with the government allocation $2.5 million to researchers for finding new ways of detecting and treating the disease.[5][6]

In 2017, Flint bought 400 copies of a book published by the Menzies Research Centre, a Liberal Party think tank, spending $5818, more than any other politician spent on publications between July 2017 and June 2018, despite the book being available online for free.[7] During the 2018 Liberal Party leadership spills, Flint was one of 43 party members to sign a petition calling for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to call for a second leadership spill.[8]

2019 election

In April 2018, the Australian Electoral Commission rearranged the electoral boundaries of South Australia to reduce the number of seats from 11 to 10, in accordance with South Australia's shrinking percentage of the Australian population. The changes to the seat of Boothby resulted in Flint's 2016 margin of 3.5% shrinking to 2.8%.[9] After the redistribution, Boothby was the only marginal seat in the state, making it a target for the Australian Labor Party in the 2019 Australian federal election.[10] Flint was also a target of the progressive activist group GetUp, who labelled her South Australia's "most backwards politician".[11] Days before the election, Flint's campaign office was vandalised with offensive graffiti.[12] She faced further harassment during the campaign, with a man cautioned for allegedly stalking her and her office also being egged.[13]

The race was too close to call on the night of the election,[14] but Flint was eventually declared the winner of the election despite a swing against her.[13] Following the election, Flint accused GetUp and Unions of being responsible for harassment, intimidation and stalking against her during the campaign, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison labelled the actions as misogynistic and bullying.[15]

Hunting and fishing advocacy

Some of Flint's columns expressed her support for recreational and commercial fishing and hunting. She wrote that Australian cricketer Glenn McGrath should not have apologised for taking and sharing trophy photographs with animals he killed while on safari in Africa. She expressed support for the commercial hunting of Saltwater crocodiles in the Northern Territory and described the McGrath controversy as an "opportunity to encourage a debate about the economic, ecological and environmental benefits hunting can bring".[16]

In her maiden speech in the Commonwealth Parliament in 2016, Flint spoke of the "modern day scourge of environmental and animal activism".[3]

Flint is from Kingston in the south-east of South Australia. Her hometown harbours South Australia's southern rock lobster fishery and other commercial fisheries.[17] In her The Advertiser columns, Flint supported the prospective culling of long-nosed fur seals,[18] Great white sharks and reducing the number of marine park sanctuary zones in South Australian waters. In her 2014 criticism of South Australian marine parks she wrote: "The most endangered species in South Australian coastal waters are our fishermen."[19]

Great white sharks

In 2014, during the Western Australian shark cull, Flint expressed her support for the use of drum lines and Shark nets to protect humans from potential attack from Great white sharks.[20] In 2017, she expressed her support for the Liberal Federal council's decision to consider permitting the fishing of great white sharks, pending the results of research undertaken by the CSIRO into the status of the species' population. As of 2017, fishing for great white sharks is prohibited as the animals are listed as "vulnerable" under the EPBC Act. She told The Australian: "We must protect our swimmers and surfers and hard-working Australians like abalone divers from being attacked or killed by sharks."[21]

Political views

Before her election, Flint's political views were expressed in regular opinion editorial columns in The Advertiser.[22]

References

1. "Boothby – Australia Votes". Election 2016. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
2. "Ms Nicolle Flint MP". Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
3. "Nicolle Flint (Lib-Boothby) – Maiden Speech | AustralianPolitics.com". australianpolitics.com. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
4. "Liberals announce Nicolle Flint as Boothby candidate in SA to replace veteran Andrew Southcott". ABC News. 1 November 2015.
5. Novak, Lauren (1 March 2018). "Federal Government commits $2.5 million to research diagnosis, treatment and cure for endometriosis". The Advertiser. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
6. Perrott, Kathryn (2 March 2018). "Endometriosis research allocated $2.5 million in Government funding". ABC News. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
7. Gladstone, Nigel (30 October 2018). "Why Liberal MPs bought 614 copies of one book for $9000". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
8. "Malcolm Turnbull asked to see who wanted him out — here are the Liberal MPs that signed on". ABC News. 24 August 2018. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
9. Harmsen, Nick (13 April 2018). "New South Australia electoral boundaries serve Labor food for thought as Mark Butler waits on a seat". ABC News. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
10. Richardson, Tom (3 August 2018). "Labor targets Boothby as Libs seek challenger for Downer". InDaily. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
11. Nielsen, Ben (12 February 2019). "GetUp targets Boothby MP Nicolle Flint, labelling her SA's 'most backwards politician'". ABC News. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
12. MacLennan, Leah (16 May 2019). "Liberal MP Nicolle Flint's campaign office vandalised ahead of federal election". ABC News. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
13. Boisvert, Eugene (20 May 2019). "Election results show Liberal MP Nicolle Flint has won marginal SA seat of Boothby". ABC News. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
14. Bermingham, Kathryn (19 May 2019). "Close race in Boothby in SA election count". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
15. Shields, Bevan (16 August 2019). "Scott Morrison to launch new assault on GetUp activist group". The Sydney Morning Herald.
16. Australia, Sporting Shooter's Association of. "Nicolle Flint: Glenn McGrath shouldn't have said sorry for safari hunting photos | Sporting Shooters' Association of Australia (SSAA)". ssaa.org.au. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
17. "KINGSTON SE & ROBE". sacountrypress.com.au. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
18. Flint, Nicolle (6 July 2015). "Nicolle Flint: Why it's time to kill our killer feral seals". The Advertiser.
19. Flint, Nicolle (8 September 2014). "Nicolle Flint: Shutting down key fishing areas is like the government closing our premium wine regions". The Advertiser. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
20. "In sharks v humans, we are more important". Retrieved 25 June 2017.
21. Pawle, Fred (24 June 2017). "Great white shark debate: protection hinges on CSIRO population finding". The Australian. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
22. "Columns". Nicolle Flint for Boothby. Retrieved 24 August 2018.