Brendan Simpkins

PENNY Pratt has beaten five other candidates to win preselection as the Liberal Party’s nominee for Frome ahead of next year’s State Election.

The seat is there for the taking for either major party following an electoral boundary redraw saw Port Pirie, the historical centrepiece of the seat, moved into nearby Stuart.

Incumbent independent member Geoff Brock, a former Mayor of Port Pirie, stated his intent to follow his home town and contest Stuart at the election.

This has paved the way for a new candidate to swoop in and take the seat.

Preselection for the seat was stacked with six candidates all vying for the nomination.

Former journalist and Port Pirie councillor Kendall Jackson was in the running again after getting the nod to battle Brock in 2014 and again in 2018.

Business consultant and former treasurer of SA’s Liberal division Michael Van Dissell was also in the running, alongside real estate agent Craig Honan, business owner Julia Clarke and teacher Karen Slattery.

However, Pratt emerged from the pack to win the nod.

She is another candidate with close ties to Premier Steven Marshall, following the selection of Ashton Hurn, Marshall’s media advisor, in Schubert.

Pratt spent five years in Marshall’s inner circle as a policy advisor while the party was in opposition.

Since 2018, she has served as chief of staff to minister for child protection Rachel Sanderson.

This is the third time Pratt has been preselected by the Liberals.

In 2010, she contested Ashford in the western suburbs but lost to Labor’s Steph Key after receiving 45 per cent of votes.

In her second go around in 2018 she contested Cheltenham, going up against then-Premier Jay Weatherill.

She received just 34 per cent of votes in what was a landslide victory for Weatherill.

Following the 2020 electoral boundaries redraw, Frome now includes a portion of Light Regional Council through the towns of Kapunda, Freeling and Roseworthy, and Adelaide Plains Council.