Liberals left with no Adelaide seats as SA party elder laments 'diabolical' result

Australia Broadcast Center

04-05-2025

The federal Liberals' last bastion in metropolitan Adelaide has toppled,
It's a seat that by many measures should be Liberal heartland, sitting in Adelaide's leafy eastern suburbs.
But less than three hours after polls closed, at the Robin Hood Hotel —
"I am obviously very bitterly disappointed that I am the custodian of losing the seat of Sturt," he said.
"This regrettably is not the only seat tonight that we are losing for the first time in a long time."
James Stevens has lost the seat of Sturt after representing it since 2019.
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ABC News: Rachael Merritt
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Victim of a national swing or failure of a local campaign?
In some respects a loss is a loss, but the Sturt loss is looking worse than others, with the swing against Mr Stevens outstripping the national trend.
That may narrow as postal votes are counted, but there's no denying Labor's Claire Clutterham will head to Canberra when parliament sits again.
Ahead of election day, Ms Clutterham was repeating the phrase she would be "a stronger and more visible voice for Sturt".
A campaign slogan that suggests her opponent hadn't been strong or visible.
Claire Clutterham is set to become Labor's first member for Sturt since 1972.
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ABC News: Sophie Landau
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Perceptions that Mr Stevens hasn't been visible enough in Sturt have possibly been made worse by the long shadow of his predecessor, Christopher Pyne.
Mr Pyne was a cabinet minister, but was also seen as an effective local member and campaigner.
He needed those campaign skills — there were times in his 26 years in Sturt that he was fighting for his political life, like in 2007 when the Rudd landslide left his margin at just 1 per cent.
A moderate Liberal seat lost during a conservative campaign
James Stevens, and Christopher Pyne before him, are both moderate Liberals.
In 2022, Mr Stevens lost a significant amount of ground to the Greens, something his party could have read as a desire from the electorate for a more progressive stance on environmental issues.
Voters in the seat of Sturt cast their ballots yesterday.
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ABC News: Brant Cumming
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It's unlikely a party led by conservative Peter Dutton did him any favours.
Notably, in his final visit to SA, Mr Dutton didn't join the Sturt MP on the hustings, instead holding a rally for the party faithful.
Watching his former seat fall from a panel on Channel 9's election broadcast, Mr Pyne issued a warning to the conservatives.
"We have to learn that you cannot win elections from the right of the political spectrum, any more than you can win them from the left of the political spectrum, that elections are won either from the centre left or the centre right," he said.
"John Howard learnt that lesson after his first term as the leader of the party. In his second term, he brought everyone together."
Liberal Party elder and moderate Christopher Pyne has delivered a warning to his conservative colleagues.
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ABC News: Matt Roberts
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Boothby now a safe Labor seat
In more recent elections, Boothby has been South Australia's battleground seat, with the Liberals holding it on an ever decreasing margin.
That changed in 2022, when Labor's Louise Miller-Frost managed to win it.
It attracted early interest this time around with the return of former MP Nicolle Flint, who had been campaigning in the seat for months before the election was called.
Louise Miller-Frost claims victory on election night.
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ABC News: Sophie Holder
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While Ms Flint has strong name recognition in Boothby, the result may show being well-known doesn't necessarily mean well-liked.
By current counting,
Nicolle Flint embraces a supporter on election night.
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ABC News: Sophie Holder
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The Malinauskas factor
At a pre-election function in Adelaide where the Prime Minister, Opposition Leader and Premier were all giving addresses, Peter Dutton described Peter Malinauskas as "the smoothest premier in the country."
High praise from a political adversary, but a sign even Mr Dutton could see the SA leader's wide appeal.
At every prime ministerial visit to South Australia, Mr Malinauskas has been by Anthony Albanese's side.
Some may have even thought they were voting for SA's premier on election day — the state leader featuring prominently on Labor corflutes at polling booths.
In a poster promoting the ALP for the senate, SA Premier Peter Malinauskas is flanked by senators Marielle Smith and Karen Grogan.
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ABC News: Brant Cumming
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Contrast that with the state opposition.
Leader Vincent Tarzia was absent from Peter Dutton's local media events, with Labor jibes in question time suggesting if Mr Tarzia wanted the party leader's phone number, the premier would be happy to give it to him.
Crushing defeat before a state election
The federal election result lays bare the almost impossible task Vincent Tarzia is facing.
As James Stevens gave his concession speech at the Robin Hood Hotel, it was hard not to reflect on March 2022, when
Since that crushing loss, the state Liberal Party has taken more blows, losing Mr Marshall's seat of Dunstan in a by-election, followed by the loss of erstwhile opposition leader David Speirs's seat of Black.
With every metropolitan federal seat now in Labor's hands, the state party will be looking at which electorates they'll target, and which they may have to sandbag.
Commiserating with his fellow Liberals at the Robin Hood, Mr Tarzia tried to distance his state team from the result.
Vincent Tarzia tried to distance his state team from the federal result.
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ABC News: Che Chorley
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"The federal election has been fought on federal issues and I think people can distinguish between federal issues and state issues," he said.
"We are just working hard every day now to hold the Labor party to account and continue to put our alternative vision forward for the people of South Australia for March 2026."
A 'diabolical result'
Christopher Pyne held on to Sturt in 2007, and despite swings across the country the party also managed to hold onto Boothby and Mayo.
Now the party's only strongholds in South Australia are its two regional electorates — Grey and Barker.
It's a result party elder Simon Birmingham described as "diabolical".
"Well, if this isn't rock bottom, then in not too long there won't be much of a party,"
he said.
"So, it's critical that people see this as a chance to turn the corner and to look at how they better identify the Liberal ideology in a way that is relevant to modern audiences."
The chances of the Liberals winning Sturt back, and gaining other metropolitan seats, may depend on whether the conservatives in the party take that lesson from their moderate colleagues.
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