South Australian Liberal party opposition leader David Speirs stands down

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The South Australian Liberal Party is on the lookout for a new leader after David Spiers announced that he'll step down prompting discussions about who is likely to take the reins.

Transcript

00:00There's a few people who have been flagged, but we won't know for certain until the Liberal

00:06Party meets on Monday.

00:08Some of those names include the current Deputy John Gardiner, also Shadow Ministers Josh

00:13Teague and Vincent Tarsier.

00:16One of the other names as well is Ashton Hearn.

00:18She's seen as a potential future leader, but at this stage we're not expecting her to be

00:23vying for the top job, and she is currently on maternity leave.

00:27ABC News understands that there is an appetite in some Liberal Party circles for an uncontested

00:33ballot, which could see a deal being struck before this meeting on Monday.

00:39Mr Spears has held the leadership since April 2022.

00:42Since then, the party's seen some factional divides.

00:45We saw the regional MP Nick McBride defect from the party and move to the crossbench.

00:50This decision follows what's really been months of speculation about Mr Spears' future as

00:55the leader of the Liberal Party.

00:57He spoke earlier this morning with ABC Radio Adelaide and said that he felt he really couldn't

01:01lead the party any more.

01:05I didn't feel that I was able to lead them going forward.

01:08Simple as that.

01:09I didn't feel that...

01:11So it's more about David Spears than the Liberal Party, I suppose, but I had to walk away because

01:17it was all just becoming too difficult for me to do so.

01:21I wasn't able to get my message through.

01:23You know, messages about ramping, cost of living, alternate policies.

01:27We were starting to get policies out into the public domain and they weren't getting

01:32traction because of this sort of speculation.

01:35He says that he won't be there for that meeting on Monday morning when his replacement is

01:40decided.

01:41But at this stage he has said that he'll be continuing to represent his electorate of

01:45black, which is in Adelaide's southern suburbs, and that he'll be looking forward to spending

01:49more time with his family and friends.

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