Election campaigning in an ankle bracelet, Nick McBride wants a third term in MacKillop

The job of a politician often involves explaining things: your party's policies, your previous statements and your vision for the future.

Rarely, however, does it involve explaining why you spent more than a week in jail during the school holidays. Or why you are campaigning for re-election wearing an ankle bracelet.

This is the situation facing independent MP Nick McBride as he asks voters on SA's Limestone Coast for a third term in state parliament.

Arrest after alleged assault

Mr McBride, a wealthy pastoralist, was arrested and charged on December 27 last year for the alleged assault of his wife — an allegation he vehemently denies.

He spent 10 days in jail over new year's before he was released on home detention bail.

He is also disputing similar charges that emerged earlier in 2025.

"It hasn't helped my campaign — I will admit that," Mr McBride told ABC News.

As he travels throughout a regional electorate that is roughly the size of Belgium, his movements are tracked by an ankle monitor on his left leg.

His travel plans have to be cleared in one-to-two-week blocks by his case manager.

ABC News joined him on the campaign trail in Lucindale, a small sheep and cattle farming town 345 kilometres south-east of Adelaide, where locals gathered at the footy oval for the annual show.

A downpour forced the festivities into the clubrooms, where Mr McBride worked the room with ease, and relished in a third-place finish in the men's chocolate cake competition.

But the inevitable topic of the charges emerge during a conversation with some constituents.

"I've got a working with children's pass that's been put in jeopardy," Mr McBride tells them.

He told the couple he was "going all right".

"We've just got to hold the head high, recognise the presumption of innocence until proven guilty," he said.

'We've got your back'

Few MPs in state parliament have enjoyed the level of support Nick McBride has.

On election night in 2022, as the Liberals watched on in horror as the Marshall government was turfed out after just one term, Mr McBride was quietly re-elected with 62.3 per cent of the primary vote – the highest of any candidate. 

As a Liberal backbencher, he regularly broke ranks on COVID-era lockdown restrictions and border closures and accused his party of "[hanging] businesses out to dry".

It has not been forgotten by some of his MacKillop constituents.

"Crossing the border to COVID, you pretty much put your head on the block for us," one farmer told Mr McBride at the show.

Mr McBride took breaking ranks to the next level in July 2023 when he quit the Liberal Party.

Now, as the Liberal Party tries to win the seat back, Mr McBride said he was concerned his court case would eat into his support.

Asked why voters should elect someone who could go to jail, Mr McBride said "I absolutely understand that sentiment" but he was focused on "clearing" his name.

It would not be unprecedented for voters in the region to re-elect an MP with charges hanging over their head.

In 2022, voters in neighbouring Mount Gambier re-elected independent MP Troy Bell as he fought theft and fraud charges in court.

Bell was found guilty of those charges and sentenced to five years' jail in October last year.

Patrick Ross, Mayor of Naracoorte Lucindale Council, said there were mixed opinions in the electorate about Mr McBride.

"On one hand, I might have the man telling me that they're Liberal," he said.

"And I'll have the woman telling me that they're going to follow McBride because of what Nick McBride's done for the community."

Conversations with government 'dried up'

Nick McBride told ABC News he believed his 2023 decision to leave the Liberals was "vindicated" as his former party faced electoral oblivion.

"They didn't know where they were going, and perhaps they've got a whole lot worse since I've left and this is no surprise to me," he said.

But he added that he wanted to see a strong Liberal Party as that would "make my independent vote even stronger … than where it is now".

The Malinauskas government, due to its commanding majority in parliament, has not needed Mr McBride on the crossbench.

Still, Labor has a history of courting conservative independents — see Peter Lewis in 2002 or Martin Hamilton-Smith in 2014 — and Mr McBride appeared to be no different.

Three months after his defection, Labor was hosting "country cabinet" forums in MacKillop and making announcements alongside him.

But since Mr McBride's first arrest in early 2025, Labor has kept its distance.

Mr McBride said he believed the Malinauskas government did not want to be seen with him.

"They're just concerned and they're not sure where this is all going to go," he said.

But he insisted that it had not impacted his ability to represent his seat and he was still "getting ministerial responses" and "outcomes for our constituents".

"Any sort of conversation though, I think I'll be fair, has dried up."

The Liberal challenger

The Liberal Party has previously been accused of "running dead" in seats held by conservative independents – that is, preselecting a novice candidate and not backing them with campaign resources.

That same accusation cannot be made in MacKillop, where the party has been throwing support behind candidate Rebekah Rosser, a former adviser in both the Olsen and Howard Liberal governments.

Ms Rosser said she had "over 100" volunteers working across the seat, where she has been spending a couple of days in each town in the party-branded van.

"She has been absolutely everywhere," local mayor Patrick Ross said.

"She is really putting her foot forward to have a red hot go for MacKillop … I think it's a very strong contest."

Ms Rosser, who was preselected in August, also worked as a senior manager at Cricket Australia and the South Australian Cricket Association.

She now runs a bed and breakfast in her hometown of Robe.

"I haven't experienced anything but respect for the Liberal brand," she said.

"But we're under no illusions that we've got to roll up our sleeves and earn back trust and respect."

Ms Rosser refused to comment on Mr McBride's "personal situation" when asked about the DV charges he was facing but argued an independent could only be effective if there was a hung parliament or they ran on a "very distinct burning platform or issue".

"That is not the case with Nick McBride," she said.

"I know he talks a lot about having developed … a close working relationship with the Labor government … Labor doesn't need MacKillop for its voting numbers.

"So, it makes sense that it's going to nurture a relationship with the person it thinks is going to cost them the least amount of money and offer the least amount of resistance."

Liberal Party brand 'rock bottom'

One person able to comment freely about the Liberal Party's situation is former deputy leader Mitch Williams, who represented MacKillop as an independent from 1997 to 1999 and then a Liberal from 2000 to 2018.

He said Ms Rosser was a "cracker of a candidate" but faced "an uphill battle".

He said Ms Rosser's job won't get any easier if she wins.

"Notwithstanding the fact that she's running as part of a Liberal team, the reality is her team's going to be so small … that'll it be like a handful of independents. It won't have significant power," Mr Williams said.

"The Labor Party are ruthless … they are not going to do anything to help any member of the opposition."

Mr Williams also said it was unlikely One Nation would be a factor in MacKillop because the seat had "already got a conservative independent".

One Nation did not make its MacKillop candidate, Jason Virgo, available for comment.

As to whether Mr McBride's charges would impact the race, Mr Williams said it was a "very hard one to pick".

"A lot of the people I talk to are saying 'look, Nick's done a good job' … some people I talk to go straight to the allegations that were levelled against him and go 'that's enough for me to not vote for him'."

What do MacKillop voters want?

At the Beachport Crayfish Festival, voters had a raft of other issues they wanted to talk about including access to health care, childcare and the state of regional roads.

"I know it's the same old story … but it would be nice just not to be worrying about potholes and buggering your rims up," said Penola winemaker Ian Mulligan.

Dr Claire Thompson, a general practitioner in Millicent, said her focus was on healthcare, namely "high demand on the system, lack of access to specialist services, lack of support of GPs [and] lack of communication between hospitals and local general practitioners".

As for the election contest, many voters felt they could not comment while Mr McBride's court case continued.

Mark Fabris, a commercial cray fisher in Southend, said Mr McBride had done "a fantastic job".

Asked whether the court case had changed his mind, Fabris said: "That's a real hard one."

"How do you separate what's happening personally towards what's happening to the benefit of the community?" he said.