Labor's win in the South Australian election sends a message to both major parties ahead of May's federal poll, a key crossbench senator says.
Saturday's state election saw Labor's Peter Malinauskas claim victory, the first time a government has lost an election since the beginning of the pandemic, with the incumbent Liberals defeated after just one term in office.
Independent South Australian senator Rex Patrick, who is up for re-election, said the result was a warning sign to both the Liberals and Labor about voter priorities at the federal election, which is due to be held by May 21.
"There's a strong message for people in the federal domain, and that is: stop pork-barrelling, stop the political corruption that's taking place where you throw money at marginal seats," Senator Patrick told Sky News on Monday.
"Concentrate on the issues that really count: aged care, health care, higher education, access to justice, cost of living."
The senator said the result in SA showed there was support for independent or third-party candidates, which could flow through to the federal election.
One in four SA voters cast their ballot for a candidate from neither of the major parties - down from 29.2 per cent in 2018.
While the poll was fought on state-based issues, Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said there were takeaways for the federal government.
"There is definitely political lessons in this. The political lessons are that you can't just rest on what you have done for the electorate, despite we have gone through the biggest challenge since World War II in COVID-19," he told the Nine Network on Monday.
"What the electorate is now looking for is their future, the political lesson for us is to make sure we can clearly articulate that and give them a pathway forward."
Labor frontbencher Mark Butler told ABC radio there were many similarities between the approaches of Mr Malinauskas as opposition leader and federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese.
"Peter Malinauskas, like Anthony, has been very busy preparing a focused policy agenda that will look beyond the pandemic, that would look at building a better future," he said.
"They're the only two oppositions that haven't been essentially underwater through the quarter of the pandemic and that's in part because both were resolved to play a constructive role."
Mr Butler said polling from South Australia also showed worrying signs for the federal government.
"One in two voters indicated in the research that they were less likely to vote Liberal or for (former premier) Steven Marshall once they learned that Steven Marshall was from the same party as Scott Morrison," he said.
"(Morrison) was a very big drag on the Liberal vote here in South Australia."
Mr Littleproud said Mr Morrison would be on the ground in seats across the country during the election campaign.
"This hasn't been an easy term. I don't think any other prime minister had to face up to such a wide-ranging number of challenges in our nation's history," he said.
"Of course, that will take some skin off him."
