Latest news with #SimonBirmingham
ABC News
27-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Sara Garcia
Thousands of South Australian households and businesses are without power as the clean-up continues after the gusty winds, high rainfalls and high tides that lashed most of the state yesterday. 4m ago 4 minutes ago Tue 27 May 2025 at 12:30am Liberal defeats in the South Australian key battleground seats of Sturt and Boothby have prompted a scathing assessment from former senator Simon Birmingham, who said his party was in "rock bottom" territory. Sat 3 May Sat 3 May Sat 3 May 2025 at 12:37pm South Australia's ongoing dry conditions are being blamed for a power outage affecting more than 20,000 households and businesses across the Yorke Peninsula and parts of the Mid North. Fri 14 Mar Fri 14 Mar Fri 14 Mar 2025 at 7:45am Cricket Australia has confirmed the Sheffield Shield final will not be played at Adelaide Oval, saying on its website the AFL had blocked use of the iconic venue. Fri 14 Mar Fri 14 Mar Fri 14 Mar 2025 at 1:07am Whyalla's steelworks has gone into administration for the second time in under a decade. Here is a look at how events have unfolded in the city in recent years. Sat 22 Feb Sat 22 Feb Sat 22 Feb 2025 at 8:07pm Steele Hall's parliamentary career stretched more than 33 years, including stints in both the federal and state parliaments. Mon 10 Jun Mon 10 Jun Mon 10 Jun 2024 at 9:25pm The state government says this year's budget will focus on supporting South Australians who need it most as it pledges a $266.2 million cost-of-living package — while also keeping the budget in the black. Here's a look at the winners and losers of this year's budget. Thu 6 Jun Thu 6 Jun Thu 6 Jun 2024 at 6:29am Former Adelaide Crows captain Rory Sloane announces his retirement from the AFL after 255 games over 16 seasons, following a second round of surgery on a detached retina earlier this year. Mon 29 Apr Mon 29 Apr Mon 29 Apr 2024 at 4:51am The South Australian government is offering some live music venues the opportunity to apply for $60,000 grants to help revive the industry that was "decimated" during COVID. But one venue owner says it might not be enough to save the live music scene. Fri 12 Jan Fri 12 Jan Fri 12 Jan 2024 at 3:36am Promoters of a two-day South Australian music festival say they have been forced to postpone the event just weeks before it was scheduled to take place because of "economic pressures". Thu 11 Jan Thu 11 Jan Thu 11 Jan 2024 at 5:09am Jacinta Davila, who had been co-accused of murdering prominent Adelaide doctor Michael Yung during an alleged home invasion, has been granted home-detention bail. Fri 22 Dec Fri 22 Dec Fri 22 Dec 2023 at 1:11pm Two former immigration detainees released into South Australia after a High Court ruling are registered child sex offenders — and a third person is in custody over an alleged indecent assault, police have revealed. Tue 5 Dec Tue 5 Dec Tue 5 Dec 2023 at 3:42am Slain SA Police officer Brevet Sergeant Jason Doig has been remembered as kind, caring and a "much loved" member of his community, in a public funeral at the Adelaide Convention Centre. Mon 4 Dec Mon 4 Dec Mon 4 Dec 2023 at 3:04am On the one hand, is a $3 billion development to accommodate thousands of families. On the other, is a burial site that is of immeasurable cultural significance. The problem? They are both on the same ground. Tue 14 Nov Tue 14 Nov Tue 14 Nov 2023 at 9:29pm This suburban park in Adelaide's north-east used to resemble a small forest, filled with hundreds of well-established pine trees — but it has been left decimated thanks to an exotic pest. Tue 19 Sep Tue 19 Sep Tue 19 Sep 2023 at 1:59am After seeing how quickly her son Khye succumbed to the disease, Nicole Hammat wants young people to be more aware of meningococcal and is pleading for the B strain vaccine to be made accessible to more people. Sun 13 Aug Sun 13 Aug Sun 13 Aug 2023 at 8:25pm An Adelaide barbershop that bans women from entering its premises in order to provide its clients with a "male sanctuary" has applied for an exemption to the Equal Opportunity Act. Mon 7 Aug Mon 7 Aug Mon 7 Aug 2023 at 1:31am The number of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases have jumped close to 10 times higher in some states across Australia when compared to last year. Experts say COVID complacency and higher testing rates could be why. Thu 6 Jul Thu 6 Jul Thu 6 Jul 2023 at 5:30am SA Police suspect two elderly people, who died one year apart, may have been murdered by the same person after abnormalities in both of their toxicology reports were found. Thu 29 Jun Thu 29 Jun Thu 29 Jun 2023 at 9:28am The state government will pour billions of dollars into fixing its troubled health system and abolish stamp duty for some first-home buyers — but it comes at a cost. Thu 15 Jun Thu 15 Jun Thu 15 Jun 2023 at 8:02am Australian man Jason Kennison dies while descending Mount Everest, a climb he had undertaken to raise money for Spinal Cord Injuries Australia. Mon 22 May Mon 22 May Mon 22 May 2023 at 1:30am A neighbour who was with Sean Ferris minutes before he stabbed two police officers and was then shot dead says the incident should never has escalated to this — as homemade weapons and a Samurai sword are removed from the property. Thu 4 May Thu 4 May Thu 4 May 2023 at 8:54am Unless you've lived in South Australia you probably have no idea what Stobie poles are, or why they are so iconic to their home state. Here's a look. Fri 31 Mar Fri 31 Mar Fri 31 Mar 2023 at 1:13am South Australia's Premier Peter Malinauskas has conceded he does not expect the state's First Nations Voice to Parliament to lead to sudden improvements but hopes that "over years and decades to come, there is some positive change". Mon 27 Mar Mon 27 Mar Mon 27 Mar 2023 at 7:51pm Thousands of people are without power across Adelaide as wild winds continue to lash the city. Mon 20 Mar Mon 20 Mar Mon 20 Mar 2023 at 4:04am
ABC News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Will the federal election results be replicated at next year's SA contest?
On Saturday night at the Robin Hood Hotel in Adelaide's eastern suburbs, Liberal MP James Stevens took to the stage to concede that he had lost the seat of Sturt. He apologised for being the man in the seat when it slipped from his party's hands for the first time in more than five decades. As he descended from the stage, there to comfort the now-former MP were party faithful and elders, chief among them the recently-retired Senator Simon Birmingham. Speaking to the media later, Mr Birmingham did not sugar-coat the result. He said it was "diabolical" and he was "gutted" to see "so much good talent, particularly fresher, younger, newer faces" lose their seats. If this wasn't rock bottom, he posited, it won't be too long before there is not much of a party. With the loss of Sturt, the Liberals had lost their last metropolitan stronghold in Adelaide. And with the Electoral Commission currently carrying out a three-candidate-preferred count in the seat of Grey, there are also concerns about one of the party's last two regional strongholds. Live results: Find out what's happening in your seat as counting continues A stark contrast to the Howard heyday where the party held Adelaide, Boothby, Hindmarsh, Kingston, Makin, Sturt, Wakefield (now Spence) and the peri-urban seat of Mayo. Now, all gone. A sign that John Howard knew how to tap into the outer-suburban "battler" vote in a way the current Liberal Party simply does not. That era also saw the SA Liberals with scores of senior voices at the cabinet table — from Alexander Downer to Robert Hill and Nick Minchin — and rising stars like Christopher Pyne and Amanda Vanstone. The party was in government at a state level too, making it unquestionably the dominant force in South Australian politics of the time. How times change. As bad as Saturday's result looks on the face of it, when you dive into the details it starts to look even worse. In almost every one of the more than 400 polling places across Adelaide's eight electorates, voters favoured Labor on a two-party preferred count. On polling day just a small handful of booths favoured the Liberals in higher numbers. A kind way to look at those results would be to consider that pre-polls and postals generally favour the Liberal Party. But any way you cut it, it's a devastating result — voters in almost every part of the city rejected the Liberals, often in emphatic numbers. Want even more? Here's where you can find all our 2025 federal election coverage Catch the latest interviews and in-depth coverage on ABC iview and ABC Listen Both state Labor and Liberal leaders have been quick to distance their contest from the federal one. At a press conference the day after Labor's victory, Premier Peter Malinauskas said he wasn't "sitting around counting numbers, thinking about seats". "I think that would be self-serving," Mr Malinauskas said. "Any sort of analysis for what this means for the state election would be foolhardy from my perspective. We've just got to get on with doing the job." While Mr Malinauskas doesn't want to seem arrogant or over-confident, Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia also has strong reasons to distance himself from the result. "The federal election has been fought on federal issues and I think people can distinguish between federal issues and state issues," he said. "All I can say is we're just working hard every day now to make sure that we hold the Labor government to account, but also make sure we continue to put our alternative vision forward for the people of South Australia." Mr Tarzia has enough to contend with, without looking at what's just happened to his federal colleagues. He's a relatively-new leader, still defining to the public who he is and what his team stands for, up against a very popular, first-term government. And there's even more he needs to overcome — the local Liberal Party's woes have been oft repeated. They lost six seats in the 2022 state election, went on to lose two by-elections — one in Dunstan when former Premier Steven Marshall retired, another in Black following the resignation of former opposition leader David Speirs. They lost MacKillop when Nick McBride turned independent. The party has also been tarnished by criminal allegations — Mr Speirs has pleaded guilty to drugs charges, and Mr McBride has this week faced court over assault charges after being charged with three counts of assaulting his wife in April. Before the 2022 election the brand also took a major hit — and lost other seats — when Mount Gambier MP Troy Bell was charged with fraud, and Narrunga MP Fraser Ellis was charged with deception — both have been found guilty but are waiting on appeals. They both still sit in parliament as independents. The Liberals also lost Kavel in the Adelaide Hills when Dan Cregan defected, making a deal with Labor to become Speaker. With all that recent history, Peter Dutton's disastrous campaign is something the local team could have done without. Party insiders are now questioning not how many seats Vincent Tarzia can win, but how many he might lose. The good news is, with all the regional seats lost to defections and scandals, there could be a chance to gain some of those back. But Saturday's result will have done little to energise the local membership — not a good start when you need to be developing an election campaign and pre-selecting candidates. For Tarzia and his team, their hope will echo Simon Birmingham, that the federal election was rock bottom, and the only way from here is up.
ABC News
05-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Federal politics live: Arthur Sinodinos says Liberals will not win government with culture wars alone
Former Liberal minister Arthur Sinodinos says the state of his party is dire but not terminal as recriminations over the Coalition's landslide election loss continue. Former Liberal finance minister Simon Birmingham says the party needs to consider gender quotas to increase the Coalition's number of women in parliament. Shadow Defence Minister Andrew Hastie yesterday confirmed he would not be a candidate in the party's leadership ballot, leaving Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor the favourite in a field that also includes deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley and Shadow Immigration Minister Dan Tehan. Follow our live blog below. Submit a comment or question Log in to comment Live updates Latest Oldest 3m ago Mon 5 May 2025 at 9:08pm Liberal MP blames poor communication for party's loss E By Evelyn Manfield Liberal member for Durack in WA, Melissa Price , who was one of the few Liberals to have a swing towards her, says poor communication was a key reason for her party's election failure. "For example, if you put our housing policy up against Labor's policy … I would say ours was a better policy, but if you are unable to communicate that message to people who you want to hear your message, then you're failing," she says. Price also points to an unsuccessful social media campaign. "People that I've spoken to since the election or leading up to the election, people under the age of 40 … when they've given me their opinion, they've said that they didn't think our social media was cutting through and, you know, that's a big problem," she says. She says the result had nothing to do with the quality of the candidates, but is unwilling to blame former leader Peter Dutton either. React React 4m ago Mon 5 May 2025 at 9:07pm Calls to consider gender quotas in the Liberal Party E By Evelyn Manfield Liberal senator Maria Kovacic says the party must also look at implementing It's a sentiment former senator Simon Birmingham supported in a lengthy LinkedIn post, where he said "With parliamentary representation now at an all-time low, such quotas could and should be hard, fast and ambitious," he wrote. Despite the number of women in the lower house set to reach a record high, Four Liberal women have so far secured seats, with another five in doubt. In 2022, nine Liberal women won seats. Kovacic also addressed some of the commentary from former leader Peter Dutton during the campaign about Welcome to Country ceremonies being overused and a "woke" school curriculum. She said the discussions were "unnecessary" and not what voters were talking about. React React 7m ago Mon 5 May 2025 at 9:04pm Liberal senator says party must move to the centre E By Evelyn Manfield Liberal politicians, past and present, are calling for the party to return to the centre and consider quotas to boost the number of women in their ranks, after Saturday's federal election defeat. Liberal senator Maria Kovacic said the party failed to address the key issues of housing and cost of living and offer solutions to "properly fix that". She warned Saturday's "brutal" loss needed to be a catalyst for change. "We need to move back to the centre," she says. "It is very, very clear that the Australian public…were not happy with the way that we were conducting ourselves as a potential government. "They didn't like what we did, so they did not elect us on Saturday, they sent us a very clear message. "We must move to the centre — we have no choice, that's where we belong." React React 11m ago Mon 5 May 2025 at 9:00pm Good morning 👋 J By Joshua Boscaini Hi everyone and thanks for joining me for another day of federal politics live. The Liberal Party is continuing to pick apart the results of Saturday's election, which saw Labor return to power with an increased majority. It's also on the search for a new leader. The race has narrowed to Angus Taylor , Sussan Ley and Dan Tehan after Andrew Hastie pulled out of the race yesterday afternoon. I'm Josh Boscaini. Join me as I take you through today's developments in politics. React React
