Four seats in South Australia, Mayo (on a margin of 12.5 per cent), Sturt, held by Mr Pyne (10.5 per cent), Boothby, (7.1 per cent) and Hindmarsh (1.9 per cent) are all regarded as vulnerable at the next election. Christopher Pyne during question time on Tuesday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Liberals have watched with horror as the four-term state Labor government survived a recent election and has since strengthened its majority by picking up a safe Liberal seat in a by-election. "We've been smashed in Adelaide by the submarines debacle, the collapse of the car industry, and a feeling that Canberra politicians don't get the fairly narrow economy here," said one South Australian Liberal. With voters eager to remove Labor from power after the turbulent Rudd-Gillard years, Mr Pyne recorded a swing of more than 6 per cent to him at the last election. A repeat of the 2010 election result would have him holding on by just three per cent.



Mr Pyne's efforts to shore up support in his seat have included writing a letter to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, which was leaked to the media, in December asking him to overhaul the way the government funds the ABC so that television production can continue in South Australia. Mr Pyne urged Mr Abbott to restore the Howard government's tied-funding initiatives for regional production.

The government's own efficiency study into the ABC and SBS described the Adelaide studios as "little used" and found the ABC could make significant savings by selling off its television studios and outsourcing more production to the private sector.

On Sunday Mr Pyne told the ABC's Insiders program that he had been elected eight times, at both high and low points for the Coalition in the election cycle. "Short-term popularity's always been ephemeral - I've never sought it," he said.

We've been smashed in Adelaide by the submarines debacle, the collapse of the car industry, and a feeling that Canberra politicians don't get the fairly narrow economy here "What I've always sought in my electorate is to be seen as effective and experienced and energetic and I've been doing that for 22 years last Friday and I intend to keep doing that into the future if the good burghers of Sturt continue to support me."

Mr Pyne described himself as a "fixer" in Parliament on Tuesday for restoring $150 million funding for research infrastructure and tackling Labor's "$6.6 billion" in unfunded programs.

"When we came to power 18 months ago, what we found was $6.6 billion worth of cuts and we are transforming the higher education system," he said. Nonetheless, on Tuesday evening the Senate rejected the proposed higher education changes, including the deregulation of university fees, for the second time within three months, despite Mr Pyne's extensive capitulations.

The government fell three votes short of the six crossbench votes it needed to pass the changes, with the bill defeated 34 votes to 30. So accommodating has he been that a reform package initially aimed at recovering more than $4 billion dollars for the beleaguered bottom line has been progressively stripped of its most objectionable elements and would now cost the budget $1.3 billion – if it were passed into law. Follow us on Twitter