Lady Whistledown-style Tales of Tarzia gossip email chain has South Australian politics enthralled | Paul Starick

A sensational anonymous gossip email has been intriguing a breathless state political court, writes Paul Starick.

A sensational anonymous gossip series, with a cutting style reminiscent of Bridgerton’s Lady Whistledown, has been intriguing a breathless state political court for almost a month.

Debuting just five days after Vincent Tarzia won the Liberal leadership, the Tales of Tarzia series had been emailed to journalists and politicians almost daily until an intermission last weekend.

For the uninitiated, Lady Whistledown issues an anonymous gossip newsletter in the enormously popular English period drama Bridgerton. She keeps a breathless court intrigued about her identity and informed about the salacious manoeuvrings of other characters.

Luke Newton as Colin Bridgerton and Nicola Coughlan as Penelope Featherington in episode 301 of Bridgerton. Picture: Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2024

Likewise, the Tales of Tarzia tomes have been littered with juicy stories about the machinations of Mr Tarzia’s fledgling leadership, focusing on the assembly of his shadow cabinet and office staff.

Ostensibly written anonymously by a Liberal insider, Tales of Tarzia was clearly aimed at cruelling Mr Tarzia’s leadership from the start. Generally speaking, the series has attacked Mr Tarzia and been favourable to his predecessor in the top state Liberal job, David Speirs.

The first email set the tone with allegations that sounded credible but, in my judgment, were incorrect. “Where’s the Shadow Cabinet reshuffle? It’s a week since the change of leadership and it still hasn’t happened. This is an unprecedented delay. Why? Tarzia has no staff. Almost all David Speirs’ staff quit, refusing to work for Tarzia,” said an email from [e-mail], with the subject Tale 1: The Beginning.

This tone was followed until Tale 21, which lobbed in inboxes about 11pm on Monday – a few hours after The Advertiser revealed explosive footage appearing to show Mr Speirs snorting a white powder, which he says is a deepfake.

“Sorry for the silent treatment, Talettes. But everyone needs the occasional R & R, even yours truly,” the email said, seemingly apologising for an unprecedented four-day break.

“ … First up, wow. Huge allegations about Speirs tonight in the Tiser. This will be a real test of Tarzia’s leadership. Will he stand by his predecessor, or throw him to the wolves?”

Footage appearing to show former opposition leader David Speirs snorting white powder, which he says is a deepfake.

Tale 23 was released nine hours and forty minutes after Mr Speirs issued a statement declaring he would “take time away from work to concentrate on my health” and was on “medical leave”.

The latest in the series, Tale 23 started: “We’re bored with the Speirs scandal, so moving right along …” and went on to dish dirt on federal preselection machinations.

Both Mr Speirs and Tales of Tarzia have been lead in the fledgling leader’s saddlebags. The day after he quit the Liberal leadership on August 8, Mr Speirs threatened to leave the party if those who undermined him were rewarded in a new leadership regime. On August 13, he broke a self-imposed exile with a cryptic Instagram post declaring he was “enjoying a respectful reset” – a thinly cloaked dig at Mr Tarzia, who had promised a “respectful reset” of the Liberal leadership.

On September 6, he used an ABC Radio interview to declare problems within the SA Liberals were “as bad if not worse” than the troubled NSW branch and a federal takeover should be seriously considered.

Mr Speirs now is publicly silent while he attends to his health. There is some humanity in politics and he has been given space and time.

Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia during state parliament question time on Thursday, September 12. Picture: NewsWire / Roy VanDerVegt

In his absence, Mr Tarzia has started to flourish. On Thursday afternoon in parliament, he delivered a spirited speech accusing the government of hubris and arrogance.

Premier Peter Malinauskas, who issued a blunt warning to his troops about arrogance after a historic Dunstan by-election victory in March, has been slightly more aggressive in parliamentary exchanges with Liberal opponents under Mr Tarzia’s leadership.

The challenge ahead of Mr Tarzia is to write his own tale by developing detailed and creative policy spelling out how the Liberals would do things better if they win government in 2026.

And that’s all from this columnist, dear readers.