Hurn to announce new SA Liberal team within days
South Australia’s Liberal Party has picked its new leader after Vincent Tarzia relinquished the top job on Friday. Ashton Hurn says a new leadership team will be announced in days.
A Liberal Party vote this morning has seen former Opposition Health spokesperson Ashton Hurn picked as its new leader giving her months to rally troops before the state election.
In a morning meeting at Parliament House, the member for the Barossa Valley seat of Schubert was voted in unanimously to lead the Liberal Party.
Hurn later saying she would consider a new leadership team over the next few days and her focus was on the state election adding that she believed Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas “thinks he’s got this in the bag”.
“A fresh leader does bring a fresh approach and I will take the time over the next couple of days to assemble my shadow leadership team,” she said.
“I’m keen to keep some continuity but there will be some changes.”
Former Liberal Leader Vincent Tarzia immediately told InDaily after the announcement “I wish Ashton all the best leading the Liberal Party to the election next year”.
Hurn told a press conference she would speak with Tarzia about what he hoped to contribute as the party worked toward a “healthier South Australia” along with lower costs and one with safer communities.
She also said a Liberal Party would repeal the SA’s First Nations Voice to Parliament if elected.
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The long-tipped future leader has now taken the top job as recent polling shows a landslide result in favour of Labor with 103 days to go before South Australians vote.
“I’d like to take this moment just to sincerely thank our former leader Vincent Tarzia for his dedication and his service over the last 16 months he’s been leader – he’s done a fantastic job and I thank him sincerely for his service,” Hurn said today.
“There is no doubt that we have an absolute mountain to climb between now and next March, but my team and I are absolutely committed to making sure that we get to work for people of South Australia and that we provide them with a real choice at the next election.
“We have a huge mountain to climb but it’s not over until it’s over.”
Former Leader Tarzia quit the leadership at 5 pm on Friday, saying he wanted to focus on his young family and his local community in the seat of Hartley.
Rumours had been swirling for weeks about a potential leadership change to Hurn but at a joint press conference last Wednesday, both Hurn and Tarzia rejected any prospect of this happening before the state election in March next year.
Hurn today said she was “genuinely shocked” by Tarzia’s decision on Friday to step down.
Deputy Leader Josh Teague – who will remain in the role – told a press conference last week that Tarzia decided to step down “entirely on his own” and to suggest there was any betrayal of Tarzia “is a malicious lie”.
Hurn is the fourth Leader of the Liberal Party since the last election, including Steven Marshall and David Speirs, who resigned after facing charges. Hurn previously worked in Steven Marshall’s office when he was SA Premier.
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Hurn said today she had spoken with both Marshall and Speirs over the past few days.
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Hurn was born, raised and educated in the Barossa Valley, living on a farm in the region where her family has lived for more than 170 years.
She and her husband Adam Howard welcomed their son Rupert as the seventh-generation family member living in Angaston in the Barossa in May last year.
Hurn, the former Opposition Health spokesperson, said Rupert Francis Hurn Howard was delivered at Burnside Hospital as there were no local birthing facilities she could access in the Barossa.
Over the weekend, Hurn said she consulted with her family and her community in relation to taking the top job.
Also over the weekend, former Liberal Party member and now independent MLC Jing Lee launched her state election campaign on with around 1000 supporters at the Adelaide Convention Centre.
While Legislative Councillor Sarah Game dropped the lead candidate for her Fair Go for Australians’ party, controversial Adelaide City councillor Henry Davis.
Davis – a former Liberal Party member – is reported to have left Game’s party, which was formed in August.
Game would instead lead her party’s upper house ticket in the state election with Jake Hall-Evans, who was previously announced to run for Fair Go in the western suburbs seat of Colton.
Game herself would not be up for re-election in 2026, as her eight-year term as a legislative councillor is ongoing until 2030.
Davis said he received a call from media before Fair Go for Australians told him about the decision but he had already accepted “another opportunity” that would be revealed at a later date.
