Is it another lollypop to migrant political aspirant?
The Liberal party has chosen Baldev Singh Sunny – popularly known as Sunny Singh as its candidate for the seat of Giles in South Australia, where the state election is to be held in on Saturday 21 March. The seat of Giles covers Whyalla, Port Augusta and the Flinders Ranges, a Labor heartland, for almost 80 years.
Based on the last election, Sunny’s chances of winning Giles are 29% to Labor’s 71%.
The Liberal party should be grateful to Sunny for putting his hand up and taking up the challenge, which, unless some miracle happens, he stands to lose. Given the history of political parties’ election investments (read expenditure), they ordinarily let the candidates fend for themselves, throwing in some posters and/or coreflute signage. The Australian Indian community would hope he gets the support he needs to win the unwinnable seat.
Introducing him on Facebook, the Liberal MP for the federal seat of Grey, Tom Venning wrote:
Sunny Singh’s story is one of hard work, community service and deep commitment to regional South Australia.
Born in North India in 1986, Sunny completed his schooling in 2002 before migrating to Australia with his wife in 2008 in search of a better future for their family. In 2009, they proudly made Port Augusta their home.
Sunny began working locally as a taxi driver, giving him firsthand insight into the daily challenges faced by residents across the region. Through dedication and perseverance, he progressed into management and later became a self-employed owner-operator. Today, Sunny owns and operates 23 taxis in Port Augusta and a further six across the Copper Triangle, providing essential transport services and creating local jobs.
Driven by a strong passion for community service, Sunny was elected to the Port Augusta City Council in 2018. Since then, he has been a tireless advocate for regional South Australia, working to ensure regional voices are heard and respected.
Sunny is a strong supporter of community safety and crime prevention. He believes safe streets are fundamental to strong communities and has consistently backed measures to tackle crime and reduce antisocial behaviour.
He is passionate about addressing the issues that matter most to local families, including the rising cost of living, high electricity prices, and the need for greater investment in regional infrastructure and services. Sunny is particularly concerned about childcare shortages and workforce challenges in regional areas, as well as the lack of reliable transport links between Hawker, Quorn, Port Augusta, Iron Knob and Adelaide.
Sunny Singh continues to work every day to help build a stronger, fairer and more connected regional community.
Gile is a safe Labor-held state seat in South Australia that was created in the early 1990s to replace the abolished electorate of Whyalla, and it has been held by the Labor Party ever since its creation.
Creation and naming
- Giles was created in the 1991 electoral redistribution and first contested at the 1993 state election, replacing the former electorate of Whyalla (which had existed since 1956).
- It is named after explorer Ernest Giles, and by area it is the largest electoral district in South Australia, covering a vast expanse of the outback.
Geographic evolution
- At creation, Giles was centred on the industrial city of Whyalla, an historically strong Labor town, and surrounding country areas where Labor also polled well in mining communities and Aboriginal communities.
- A major redistribution before the 1997 election expanded Giles far beyond Whyalla to the north and west, taking in remote towns such as Coober Pedy, Roxby Downs and Oodnadatta, and stretching to the Western Australian and Northern Territory borders.
- Later redistributions have adjusted its shape; for example, it gained parts of Port Augusta from the neighbouring seat of Stuart while losing some south‑western localities such as Cowell and Kimba.
Political history and party control
- The predecessor seat of Whyalla had been continuously held by Labor since its creation in 1956, often with very large majorities, and this pattern largely carried over into Giles.
- On its creation Giles was notionally Labor, but less safe than Whyalla: Labor’s two‑party margin was cut roughly in half (to just over 5%), and in the 1993 landslide against Labor the margin was reduced to a narrow buffer of around 2–3 percentage points.
- Despite that swing, Giles was the only rural seat Labor retained at the 1993 election, when its overall representation collapsed to 10 of 47 seats and most of country South Australia swung permanently away from Labor.
- After the 1997 redistribution, the notional Labor margin ticked up slightly, and the new Labor candidate achieved a strong swing that made Giles a clearly safe Labor seat, a status that has generally persisted.
The sitting member, Eddie Hughes (Labor) was first elected in 2014 and has held the seat since, retaining it at the 2018 and 2022 state elections. At the 2018 election Giles was already considered a safe Labor seat, with a two‑party‑preferred margin of about 14% in Labor’s favour.
At the 2022 election, Hughes increased his primary and two‑party‑preferred vote, winning around 71% of the two‑party‑preferred vote against the Liberal candidate Graham Taylor’s 29%. The 2022 state election reinforced Giles’ status as one of Labor’s strongest non‑metropolitan seats in South Australia.
Experts have rated the 2026 notional margin in favour of Labor to be more than 19%. That makes it almost impossible for any other party to win the seat. If the Liberal party of South Australia really wanted to recognize the hard work of Sunny Singh, it would have chosen one of the following seats:
Colton: (winning margin – LIB 4.8%)
Liberal MP Matt Cowdrey is retiring.
Kavel: (winning margin – notional – LIB 3.5%)
Former Liberal turned Independent Dan Cregan is retiring.
Morialta: (winning margin – LIB 1.4%)
Liberal MP John Gardiner is retiring.
Mount Gambier: (winning margin – LIB 13.8%)
Vacant seat following the conviction and disqualification of Troy Bell.
Unley: (winning margin – LIB 2.2%)
Liberal MP David Pisoni is retiring.
It would have given Sunny Singh at least some fighting chance of winning a berth in the State parliament.
Is it another one of those lollypops the political parties hand out to Australian migrant aspirants who the parties know, will be loyal soldiers, where the parties themselves know, they practically have no real prospect of winning?
Let us wait for March 21.