South Australia's Labor Government has vowed to focus on education as a key state election issue and take aim at challenger Nick Xenophon's role in letting federal cuts through Parliament when he was a senator.
Premier Jay Weatherill said Labor MPs and candidates planned to visit about 100 city and regional schools in coming days, as they campaigned for the March 17 state poll.
"We're upgrading about 90 of our schools, creating 2,500 jobs and giving state-of-the-art facilities for our schools," the Premier said.
"But we're also highlighting the cuts that Nick Xenophon and the Liberal Party voted for [in Federal Parliament].
"Almost every school is getting a cut of at least a couple of hundred thousand dollars."
Mr Xenophon has revealed a father and son as the candidates who will challenge Mr Weatherill and Liberal Opposition Leader Steven Marshall in their Adelaide electorates.
"The two Noonans, John and Jack, are engineers. This is a great father and son duo to take on the Premier and the Opposition Leader," he said.
"They will both give the [party leaders] a run for their money."
Electorate campaigning pressure
Mr Xenophon said he expected both the Labor and Liberal leaders would be forced to spend more time than usual campaigning in their electorates to fight off the SA Best challengers.
"No seat in this state is safe any more. No one can expect to win a seat easily," he said.
John Noonan, 60, will challenge Mr Weatherill in Cheltenham, where SA Best said the future of Queen Elizabeth Hospital services remained an issue.
His son Jack, 27, is lining up against Mr Marshall in Dunstan, with Mr Xenophon describing the Liberal Party in SA as a feeble opposition.
Mr Weatherill described the latest candidates as a Xenophon stunt.
"Anyone's entitled to nominate for a seat in parliament but, for us, it's just another stunt," he said.
"Basically, a father and son team, it's a classic Nick stunt.
"It seeks to distract attention from the real issues."
Mr Weatherill said the education policies of the respective parties would ultimately be more important to voters.
"Making sure that our kids have the skills to get the jobs of the future is an absolutely critical election issue," the Premier said.
The SA Best leader agreed employment was a key concern, especially the number of young South Australians leaving for work opportunities elsewhere.
"We have some serious systemic problems that need to be dealt with," Mr Xenophon said.
