SA seats to watch after election week one

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SEATS TO WATCH:

HINDMARSH

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has slapped down speculation he's planning to direct preferences to Labor to oust Hindmarsh MP Matt Williams from one of the Liberal's most marginal South Australian seats. Mr Williams took Hindmarsh out of Labor hands in 2013 and holds it by a 1.9 per cent margin. Labor candidate Steve Georganas will fight hard to get his old job back. So it's no surprise that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had his first real campaign encounter with voters in a Glenelg shopping centre on Friday.

MAYO

Senator Xenophon did hint that Labor could direct its preferences to Nick Xenophon Team candidate Rebekha Sharkie in Jamie Briggs' seat of Mayo. The former minister's Adelaide Hills seat isn't marginal but his reputation has taken a hit since he lost his job as cities minister over an incident in a Hong Kong bar last year. Senator Xenophon insisted there was no deal in Mayo and he didn't need one because Labor would be foolish to preference Mr Briggs over the NXT.

BOOTHBY:

The relatively safe Liberal seat of Boothby received a boost with the announcement of a $43 million rail extension to the Tonsley campus of Flinders University. Nicolle Flint is running for the Liberal party as Andrew Southcott retires. With the NXT threat ever-present, Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop dropped by to say that backing an independent was as good as throwing your vote away.