Steven Marshall quits South Australian Liberal leadership after election rout

Steven Marshall has resigned as South Australian Liberal leader, saying he takes full responsibility for Saturday’s election disaster.

Steven Marshall has resigned as South Australian Liberal leader, saying he takes full responsibility for Saturday’s election disaster, where his first-term government was crushed by Labor’s Peter Malinauskas.

Mr Marshall visited Government House on Sunday morning and told Governor Frances Adamson the party was unable to form government following Saturday’s state election.

“A new government will be sworn in shortly,” Mr Marshall said in a statement.

“While I am disappointed by the election outcome, I take full responsibility for the result and accept the will of the people.”

His resignation comes amid doubt as to whether Mr Marshall will even remain in politics as he faces a knife-edge battle to hold his formerly safe seat of Dunstan following Saturday’s election rout.

The ex-Premier made no secret of his devastation at the result, audibly declaring “get me the f--k” out of here” to staffers as he left the Robin Hood Hotel after conceding defeat at just 8.59pm on Saturday.

The extent of the Liberal loss has left the party devastated with several ministers losing their seat including the Deputy Premier Dan van Holst Pellekaan, who was regarded as a potential future leader.

Steven Marshall following Saturday night’s election loss. Picture: Tom Huntley

Transport Minister Corey Wingard and Child Protection Minister Rachel Sanderson both lost their seats and even the Industry and Skills Minister David Pisoni is struggling to hold on in his-blue chip seat of Unley, a suburb comparable to Toorak or Point Piper which has been a Liberal stronghold for decades.

The loss of personnel for the Liberals is worsened by the fact that their master tactician, 41-year political veteran Treasurer Rob Lucas, retired from politics on Saturday.

Presaging a poor night for the Liberals and a sense of frustration at their impending doom, the normally demure Lucas said at the start of his appearance on Channel 9’s election panel that regardless of the result he intended to “get maggoted” once the broadcast finished.

For now, Steven Marshall remains the longest serving Liberal leader in Australia, having taken over in SA in 2013 and doing a good job for most of that period in managing the party’s notoriously divided factions.

That unity collapsed in the past 12 months as the party slipped into minority government with the resignation of three Liberal MPs, two of whom, Fraser Ellis and Dan Cregan, have now been re-elected comfortably as independents.

Their resignations from the party last year sparked a new round of internal factional warfare which risks being made worse by Saturday’s result.

Much of the anger among party conservatives is directed towards former deputy premier and Attorney-General Vickie Chapman, a senior moderate figure who is close to former federal minister and moderate leader Christopher Pyne.

Ms Chapman held her seat but any prospect of her becoming leader after Mr Marshall resigns would trigger huge internal recriminations within the party.

Conservatives attribute the collapse in the party’s vote to Ms Chapman’s alienation of traditional Christian supporters through her championing of late-term abortion and euthanasia laws.

The party further angered Christian supporters last year when several hundred members hailing from fundamentalist and pentecostal churches joined the party, only to have their memberships initially suspended amid claims from the moderates they were part of a branch-stacking exercise led by conservative SA Liberal Senator Alex Antic.

The reality now for the Liberals is that they are so decimated by the result that their leadership talent pool has thinned out to no-name MPs who have never been regarded as leadership material.

The factional balance of the parliamentary party remains heavily skewed towards the moderates, with former Liberals Dan Cregan and Fraser Ellis now successfully entrenched as independents.

Possible leaders being touted after Mr Marshall resigns include former Education Minister John Gardiner, former Environment Minister David Spiers and former Trade Minister Stephen Patterson.