The Labor Government is up to its old tricks, this time using public funds to campaign in the Port Adelaide by-election.

Premier Jay Weatherill used taxpayer monies to pay for an expensive newspaper advertisement which said he wanted public input to create a new master plan for Port Adelaide.

“It was a con by a Labor Party desperate not to lose Kevin Foley’s old seat,” Liberal frontbencher David Ridgway said.

“This public consultation has as much to do with the ALP as Guy Fawkes had to do with democracy.

“The Land Management Corporation, a statutory body created by Act of Parliament, is obliged to consult with the public. Jay Weatherill has nothing to do with it.

“Neither those who saw the newspaper advertisement nor the hundreds of innocent people who turned up to the meeting about Port Adelaide’s future would have known that Jay Weatherill was there merely loitering with intent.

“That intent is to distance himself from his decision to build Newport Quays and raze the Port’s history.

“That’s why, with a difficult by-election now just weeks away, he’s pretending to wash his hands clean.

“But the stain won’t come off. Jay Weatherill was first planning minister in the Rann Government and he sat at the Cabinet table while these developments were being ticked off.

“He’s now attempting to paint himself as a white knight for halting Newport Quays which should have been done properly in the first place.

“And his about-face is possibly going to be far, far more expensive than people realise.

“I’m told that one of the interested parties in the cancelled project believes compensation in the order of $120 million might be appropriate.

“The people and voters of Port Adelaide will pay the cost of this litigation and compensation.

“Everything Labor has touched at Port Adelaide has turned to mud.

"In this by-election put Labor last."