‘Second chances are not easily given’: David Speirs to run in state election
The former leader of the SA Liberal party, who was convicted in 2025 of supplying cocaine to two people, has announced he will run as an independent in the state election. The SA Liberal Party say they will preference him last.
Former state Liberal leader David Speirs will contest the seat of Black in the 2026 state election as an independent, following months of rumours about whether he would return to politics.
Speirs, who was convicted earlier this year of supplying cocaine to two people, quit as leader of the SA Liberals in August 2024, claiming he “just had a gutful” of leadership speculation and did not have the energy to keep fighting.
In September that year, News Corp published a video purportedly showing him snorting cocaine, which he claimed was a “deepfake”. He resigned from parliament after he was arrested in October.
His resignation led to a by-election, which Labor candidate Alex Dighton won in November 2024. Dighton will recontest the seat in March.
Speirs was later fined $9000 and handed 37.5 hours of community service after being convicted for supplying cocaine to two people.
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Since August last year, rumours have swirled around the disgraced former Opposition Leader about whether or not he would take another run at the seat of Black.
In a video posted to social media today in which he announced his candidacy, the former MP for Black said he had learned that “second chances are not easily given, they are earned”.
“I have had a lot of time to search myself during this time to work out what’s important to me, to work out what’s important to the community that I once represented,” he said.
“I have hit rock bottom, but I’ve bounced back up again.”
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SA Liberal leader Ashton Hurn said she had not spoken to Speirs about his decision and that he would not be welcomed back into the Liberal party.
Deputy Liberal leader Josh Teague said on Saturday that the Liberal Party will be preferencing David Speirs last on its ballot papers.
“The reality is there for all to see that David Speirs has been convicted, and unfortunately, the consequences of that are real,” Teague said.
The Liberal Party is running local ambulance officer Rhees Bishop as their candidate for the now Labor-held seat of Black, who Teague said is a tremendous candidate.
When asked about Speirs running for Black, Premier Peter Malinauskas said: “words sometimes don’t do justice to the stunning nature of politics on the conservative side of the spectrum”.
Labor’s Police Minister Blair Boyer said on Saturday that it was “almost unimaginable” that Speirs was running for parliament again.
“There is a conversation that needs to be had here about whether someone who has been found guilty of such serious crimes as the ones David Speirs has been found guilty of should be even able to run or potentially sit in the South Australian Parliament again,” Boyer said.
Speirs told the ABC he is yet to seek legal advice about his nomination, but was quoted as saying “my nomination was accepted by the electoral commission today so I guess that was enough for me to have the confidence to move forward”.
Speirs will be running against current Labor MP Alex Dighton and Liberal candidate Rhees Bishop in the seat of Black.
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