Centre Alliance (CA), formerly known as the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT), is a centrist Australian political party based in the state of South Australia.

However, prior to Australian Electoral Commission approval, Xenophon left politics, and the party withdrew its application and changed its name to Centre Alliance.

[4] The party's ideological focus is a combination of socially liberal and populist policies,[5][6][7] drawing from the positions of Xenophon.

[8] Its present members have variously declared support for same-sex marriage, reform of the Australian Intelligence Community, action on climate change, support for military veterans, affordable tax cuts, Australian-made manufacturing (including defence-industry spending), and legalising euthanasia.

Although Xenophon was re-elected, his running mate Stirling Griff narrowly missed out to Bob Day of the Family First Party.

[13] Without Xenophon as a candidate, being in the national senate, John Darley won 12.9 percent of the statewide upper house vote.

[20] The party submitted an application to change its name, abbreviation and logo to SA-BEST (Federal) to the Australian Electoral Commission in February 2018.

[33] The government stated that: “(the) reforms will create 30,000 (university) places next year, while cheaper fees in certain fields will deliver more graduates in areas of expected job growth”.

[35] According to Griff, NXT aimed to field candidates that had "real life experience" as opposed to "celebrities [...] academics [...] [or] political groupies".

[35] These comments were reflected in the composition of NXT candidates for the election, with one third of them coming from a small business, grassroots background.

[38] In June 2014, polling in the seat of Sturt held by Christopher Pyne–a major figure in the Liberal Party–indicated that an NXT candidate would have beaten him 38% to 31% in primary vote.

[39] This was before Tony Abbott was replaced by Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister following the September 2015 Liberal leadership ballot.

[41][42][43] ABC election analyst Antony Green believes that NXT could attract some 10-12% of the vote in the eastern states.

[44] A 15 January 2016 article in the Sydney Morning Herald argued that NXT's debut national election had been undermined by the rise of Turnbull.

In 2015, soon after becoming Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull intimated that NXT would struggle to overcome the deficiencies of its leader, adding "Nick’s track record to date is that when he last ran with a running mate, he and Ann Bressington split up".

Sharkie's main opponent in Mayo, sitting Liberal member Jamie Briggs said, "I think what it reveals is you just can't trust these independents".

[49] This included an attack levelled at his failure to declare a directorship of Adelaide Tower Pty Ltd, which involved his father.

[50] Labor requested the Australian Electoral Commission investigate questionable loans given to Xenophon by businessman Ian Melrose.

[51] In the presence of NXT candidates in all eleven South Australian seats, both major parties recorded a suppressed primary vote, resulting in a reduction of the major party primary vote in all but one South Australian seat.

Though Labor picked up a two-party swing in all eleven, NXT's presence produced a result where Kingston ended up as the only South Australian seat to record an increase to a major party primary vote.

[62] Stirling Griff, while remaining with the party, ran as an independent "Group O" candidate for the Senate, in a ticket led by Nick Xenophon.