Former Liberal leader and convicted cocaine supplier David Speirs’ stain on South Australia

Convicted cocaine supplier David Speirs was once touted as a future Premier, a move that cast lasting doubt on his former Liberal colleagues’ judgment. Now, he has confirmed just how justified that doubt was.

• Speirs admits ‘Deepfake’ excuse
• How Speirs was caught out

David Speirs has confirmed – if there was any possible lingering doubt – that he is a man without morals, and, as Paul Keating might say, a shiver looking for a spine to run up.

Only a gutless person would give drugs to a vulnerable young man, whom Speirs first met when he was a teenager at church camp and who was doing his best to recover from a narcotic addiction.

David Speirs has confirmed – if there was any possible lingering doubt – that he is a man without morals, writes the Editor’s View. Picture: NewsWire / Roy VanDerVegt

Only an immoral person would lie and say he had never taken drugs in his life when it is now evident he was hoovering up cocaine on multiple occasions and storing the drug at home.

Only a person of little detectable good character would distort in the desperate hope others would pay the price.

A deepfake, he said. A deep state plot. He fell in with the wrong crowd.

On that last excuse, what an insult to the two young men he met at church youth camp when he was a leader and they were teens.

Thirteen years later after a chance meeting, he invited them around to snort cocaine and drink alcohol, despite knowing one was a member of Narcotics Anonymous.

He was “always happy to catch up for a drink and a bag,” he told them.

“I’ve not been the best version of myself, I’ve not been the best version of David Speirs and I have spent time with people who did not bring out the best in me, to be honest,” he later whined as he resigned.

Only a immoral person would lie and say he had never taken drugs in his life when it is now evident he was hoovering up cocaine on multiple occasions and storing the drug at home. Picture: NewsWire / Roy VanDerVegt

Let’s actually be honest. David Speirs is an immoral, criminal drug supplier, a liar and a blame shifter.

Hanging out with two churchgoing young men was not “the wrong crowd”. Supplying them drugs made him the wrong one in that trio.

He now says panic caused him to lie and say the snorting video obtained by The Advertiser was a deepfake, despite the video being filmed in his kitchen while he was wearing a T-shirt he regularly donned.

Now we are to believe he only tells lies when panicked, which is not a great trait if you’re aiming to be the premier. Peter Malinauskas has probably had more than a few moments as premier that could be panic-inducing, but fortunately for the state he hasn’t resorted to cocaine.

A coward to the end, Speirs whinged to the court that he had been hounded in the media.

It was fair scrutiny of someone vying to lead the state; it is deeply in the public interest to know the true character, or lack thereof, of such a person.

Speirs’ stain on our state

David Speirs wanted to face voters as an alternative Premier. Instead, he faced a court.

The result is a conviction as a cocaine supplier, which casts a continued pall on the party that elected him as its leader.

Elected as Liberal leader almost three years ago to the day, Mr Speirs was positioned to lead the Opposition to a state election next March.

The leadership ballot had handed Mr Speirs a clear majority – he won 18 votes and his nearest rival, Josh Teague, secured only five.

Mr Speirs has blamed his secret return to cocaine use on a failure to cope with the pressures of the Liberal leadership.

David Speirs arrives for sentencing. Picture: NewsWire / Roy VanDerVegt

His exposure, fabrication of a deepfake claim, and subsequent conviction as a drug supplier starkly expose Mr Speirs as a stain on our state’s democracy.

Privately, some Liberals reveal they held suspicions about Mr Speirs’ erratic behaviour when he was Environment and Water Minister from 2018-2022 in Steven Marshall’s government.

Questions were raised when he did not turn up to an important press conference, leaving Mr Marshall to front this alone.

With the Liberals now holding a historically small number of lower house seats, Mr Speirs’ ability to ascend to the top job exposes, yet again, a dearth of talent in party ranks.

Mr Speirs was, supposedly, a deep and creative policy thinker. But, with less than 11 months until the March 21 state election, the Liberals are still struggling to reveal a compelling alternative policy vision.

In an interview with The Australian conducted before his sentencing, Mr Speirs refused to rule out speculation he could run as an independent in a bid to recapture his former seat of Black, in southwestern Adelaide.

He might have been popular with his electorate and considered a hardworking MP. But a conviction as a law-breaker for drug supply surely creates an enormous hurdle to returning as a lawmaker.

- Paul Starick

Originally published as Former Liberal leader and convicted cocaine supplier David Speirs’ stain on South Australia