Inside the SA Liberal Party: Who are the factional powerbrokers

The kingpins hold the power, the rising stars are vying for it and then there’s the foot soldiers. We break down who is calling the shots in the Liberal Party.

Some of the South Australian Liberal Party kingpins. Pictures: File

Many South Australians may struggle to recognise the names of federal Liberal Party members senator Alex Antic and Barker MP Tony Pasin but the two arguably play the strongest power game in the party.

These right wing soldiers have cleverly worked the backroom to install conservatives in all key roles in the state executive that oversees party pre-selections for seats and strategies.

At last year’s Liberal Party annual general meeting, Antic and Pasin celebrated a win when all four of the conservatives they backed won vice president spots.

They included Playford Mayor Glenn Docherty who was listed as a “casual employee” in Antic’s office and Lachlan Haynes who was working in Mr Pasin’s office at the time.

After the win, Senator Antic told SkyNews he was behind a conservative recruitment campaign for the SA Liberal Party that stemmed from wanting to “show everyday people, everyday conservatives”.

There is no doubting his factional power.

SCROLL DOWN FOR THE LIBERAL FACTIONS EXPLAINED

Senator Alex Antic. Picture: NewsWire/ Richard Gosling

Barker MP Tony Pasin. Picture: Supplied

Senator Antic, a backbencher who was first elected a federal senator in 2019 from third on the ticket with 687 votes, managed to this year knock one of the state’s most senior liberals, former minister Anne Ruston, off the top of SA’s senate ballot for the next election.

No mean feat when Senator Ruston is the third-most senior woman in the federal Liberal Party, she is the Coalition’s health spokeswoman and manager of opposition business in the senate.

Senator Antic and Mr Pasin are backed by the SA Liberal Party’s former women’s taskforce chair Nicola Centofanti, who was third on the state party’s ticket when she won a chair in the upper house at the last election. She is now the party’s state upper house leader.

The conservatives are playing the long game. They have installed allies in the SA upper house but when David Speirs resigned in a blaze of drama there were slim pickings in the lower house to back an MP for leader.

Hence, Vincent Tarzia winning the reins with a bloc vote from the Right. Mr Tarzia has drifted from the Moderates to win the Right’s backing, which proved crucial to his ballot win, having effectively forced Moderate kingpin and Deputy Leader John Gardner to withdraw from the contest on the morning of the August 12 ballot.

Word on the street is that Ben Hood may just be that knight in conservative armour waiting in the wings.

The former Mount Gambier councilor won the Liberal Party vote to replace retiring Liberal moderate Stephen Wade in the upper house in March last year.

If Hood makes the switch to the lower house and wins the fight at the next election for independent Troy Bell’s seat in Mount Gambier, (Bell resigned from the Liberal Party after facing court charges), he will be positioned as a leadership contender with strong Right support.

Moderate Ashton Hurn returns from maternity leave in October and has long been considered a leader in waiting. A former media adviser to Steven Marshall as premier, Ms Hurn, a first-term MP, is conscious that she needs to gain experience and is not a contender until at least after the 2026 election.

BREAKING DOWN LIBERAL POWER

Kingpins: At the top of the food chain are the kingpins. These factional players are the leaders, and they are responsible for positions on policy and decisions about who will fill key roles. Some kingpins hold high-profile positions, while others work in the shadows.

Rising stars: Keep your eye on the rising stars. They’re the ones still coming up through the ranks, vying to reach more influential roles within the party. Where will they be in 10 years? Time will tell.

Rank and file: These are the foot soldiers. For a party to be successful, it needs numbers. So don’t underestimate the role of the rank and file – they’re best kept on side.

Originally published as Inside the SA Liberal Party: Who are the factional powerbrokers