Former Liberal leader David Speirs’ extraordinary departure from politics

David Speirs’ bizarre departure from politics is unprecedented and removes the shackles from his successor, Vincent Tarzia.

• Speirs’ house raided by SAPOL

The charging of a former major party leader for supplying a controlled substance is an extraordinary moment in Australian political history.

It is challenging to find any precedent for former state Liberal leader David Speirs facing a possible maximum $50,000 fine and 10-year prison term.

The bizarre nature of his departure from the leadership on August 8, when he declared he’d “had a gutful” of being undermined and lacked the energy to fight on, has now been usurped by the stunning circumstances of his imminent departure from parliament.

In a video statement, Mr Speirs sounded like a QAnon far-right American conspiracy theorist, claiming there was “someone pretty sinister behind this” – a raid by armed police on his home.

“I’m equally concerned about what is actually the use of state government power against someone who is a political opponent,” he added, bizarrely.

David Speirs delivers his video resignation statement. Picture: Facebook

Premier Peter Malinauskas only learned of the police investigation the morning after Mr Speirs was arrested and charged on September 26.

A spokesman for Police Commissioner Grant Stevens shot back at the wild conspiracy theory, declaring, “If Mr Speirs has any concerns regarding an alleged conspiracy, he should report his concerns to the Independent Commission Against Corruption immediately.”

Mr Malinauskas is likely to seize upon Mr Speirs’ wild theories as further evidence of Liberal turmoil, ahead of a by-election within weeks to replace the outgoing MP for Black, a southwestern Adelaide electorate.

Labor is the favourite to gain another seat and reduce the Liberals to just 13 seats in the 47-seat parliament.

Even before Mr Speirs’ political implosion, Labor had been sidestepping fallout from a cost-of-living crisis and failure to “fix the ramping crisis”.

Premier Peter Malinauskas is a politician of rare talent, with an ability to win over many from the Liberals’ traditional business bases.

Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia making a statement about David Speirs Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

But fledgling Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia has been unshackled from the spectre of his predecessor, who has been lead in his saddlebags from the day he won the leadership, August 12.

Three days before the Liberal ballot, Mr Speirs said it would be “difficult to remain in the Liberal Party” if the “two or three” people who undermined his leadership were rewarded in a new regime.

This was widely interpreted as a veiled dig at Mr Tarzia, who said he had not undermined Mr Speirs.

The departure of Mr Speirs in extraordinary circumstances gives Mr Tarzia a free run, finally, and the Black by-election will be a chance for him to showcase his bold, assertive leadership style.

Holding the seat will be extraordinarily challenging. Mr Speirs was considered a strong marginal seat campaigner and fended off Labor 52.7 per cent to 47.3 per cent at the 2022 election.

But, as Saturday’s events showed, stranger things have happened in politics.

Originally published as Former Liberal leader David Speirs’ extraordinary departure from politics