VIDEO: Ex-Lib leader in SA seeking election comeback despite drug conviction

JAMES WAKELIN, REPORTER: It’s festival time in Adelaide.

ROB MANWARING, FLINDERS UNIVERSITY POLITICAL SCIENTIST:  It’s a time of freak shows, comedians and jokers and of course we have an election going on at the same time. There’s a risk it gets drowned out in terms of all the business that’s going on. 

JAMES WAKELIN:  But even the most distracted of voters will have found it hard to miss the surprise comeback of one-time Liberal leader David Speirs.

DAVID SPEIRS, FMR SA OPPOSITION LEADER:  I gave this a lot of consideration, and I felt I had a reasonable level of support in the community. 

JAMES WAKELIN:  In 2024, the then opposition leader suffered a very public downfall when pictures emerged of him snorting a substance off a plate. The 41-year-old was later convicted of two counts of supplying cocaine. 

DAVID SPEIRS:   Look, it’s in the past now, but I made bad mistakes, I surrounded myself with people that I shouldn’t have, and I made decisions that I shouldn’t have done. 

You know, I’m owning it, I’m saying sorry to the people that I failed and I failed a lot of people, but I failed myself as much as anything. But it took a massive personal toll on me. 

JAMES WAKELIN:  Now he’s back on the campaign trail hoping his former constituents will support him. 

VOX POP:  We don’t want to know you, you get going. You get going. 

JAMES WAKELIN:  What’s your thoughts on David Speirs running again. 

VOX POP:  He should be ashamed of himself with what he’s done, and he’s got the audacity to come back. I hope nobody votes for him

DAVID SPEIRS:   Well, I don’t need every vote, I need 50 per cent plus one to get across the line, with or without preferences and I don’t expect everyone to feel that they can trust me, I don’t expect everyone to back me.

VOX POP:  Welcome back. I’m so glad 

DAVID SPEIRS:   Thank you.

VOX POP:  You were the best thing ever to happen to us.

DAVID SPEIRS:   Thank you for your support 

JAMES WAKELIN:  And while some appear prepared to forgive David Speirs’ drug use, concerns remain about his conviction of supplying drugs.

LABOR ADVERTISEMENT: They say they’re tough on crime but a former state Liberal has been convicted of serious drug offences.

JAMES WAKELIN:  Labor is already using the Speirs’ controversy in attack ads while his former party has also turned its back on him. 

ROB MANWARING:  Given that the major parties have preference against him he faces a really significant uphill battle

JAMES WAKELIN:  And there’ve been legal questions raised too about whether he should be allowed to run. 

MICK SHERRY, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER:  The Constitution Act, it primarily relates to if a member of parliament was sitting at the time a number of circumstances would take place, it would deem them ineligible to continue to sit. It doesn’t refer to at the time of nomination,  

JAMES WAKELIN:  So effectively if your criminality was in the past then you are eligible. 

MICK SHERRY:  That is our interpretation. 

JAMES WAKELIN: Another former Liberal, Cory Bernardi is facing an easier political re-entry as One Nation’s lead candidate in the Upper House.

CORY BERNARDI, ONE NATION UPPER HOUSE CANDIDATE:  I think there’s just an opening of the mind that governments have disappointed them. There is another alternative and One Nation is presenting itself as the fiercest voice for ordinary Australians.

JAMES WAKELIN:  Recent polls in SA mirror surveys nationally with One Nation’s primary vote ahead of the Liberals. But Cory Bernardi is cautious about whether that will translate into seats in parliament.

CORY BERNARDI: Whether that is one seat, or two seats or five seats, I promise you we’ll be your voice in parliament.

JAMES WAKELIN:  Do you think you could be the new Opposition?

CORY BERNARDI:  Not really at this point to be frank. I mean we don’t look at it like that. 

ROB MANWARING:  I would be surprised if they do get a seat in the Lower House. In the Upper House, I think it's far more likely they'll probably pick up at least two spots in the Upper House.

CORY BERNARDI: Ultimately if a significant portion of the South Australian electorate casts a first preference vote for One Nation, it does send a message to the major parties and everyone else that there are people out there who are unhappy. 

PETER MALINAUSKAS, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN PREMIER:  Don’t interrupt. 

JAMES WAKELIN:  At a closely fought SA leader's debate on Friday. 

ASHTON HURN, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN OPPOSITION LEADER:  Don’t interrupt me. 

PETER MALINAUSKAS:  Fair enough.  

JAMES WAKELIN:  The One Nation threat came up repeatedly. 

PETER MALINAUSKAS: I’m worried about the rise in populism around the world. We’ve been able to hold it bay in Australia largely but now it feels like it’s very much at our shores 

JAMES WAKELIN:  The Labor Party is preferencing One Nation last on it’s how to vote cards.

While the Liberal Party has chosen to put One Nation above Labor as it attempts to avoid a political wipeout. 

PETER MALINAUSKAS:  John Howard had the principle and the conviction to put One Nation last, was he wrong? 

ASHTON HURN:  I'm willing to take some advice form the Premier on a range of things but it’s certainly not preferences.

JAMES WAKELIN:  The Labor Party is still expected to win in a landslide but major parties around the country will be watching the result closely to see just how much momentum One Nation has gathered and if it could potentially influence other upcoming polls, including the Victorian election in November. 

ROB MANWARING:  The election here, is probably the mark actually of a new era in Australian politics, where we’re going to see probably populism much more take hold in our political debates

CORY BERNARDI:  I think the country is watching what happens here in South Australia. I think there’s a real opportunity for us to do well, how well is going to be the question.