Every Lib gets a prize: Hurn announces shadow cabinet after election defeat
Liberal Leader Ashton Hurn is taking on Chris Picton in the defence space as she unveils a shadow ministry where every pollie gets a prize. Read what jobs the depleted Liberal team will take on.
Liberal Leader Ashton Hurn has taken on the defence and space industries portfolio along with trade, industry and investment – going head-to-head with Labor Chris Picton’s new “super portfolio” that draws together defence, trade and state development.
The party was left with only eleven Liberal members in parliament and all have been given a ministerial role in the new team.
Josh Teague – who narrowly kept his seat of Heysen in the Adelaide Hills – remains Deputy Opposition Leader, Shadow Attorney General and Aboriginal Affairs, but adds planning and housing to his list of responsibilities.
Upper House MLC Laura Henderson has also taken on more responsibility, becoming Shadow Minister for Child Protection and the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence. This marks Henderson’s first fully-fledged ministry position after being an assistant minister in the previous term.
Hurn made a rally call at a late Thursday of the long weekend press conference, saying: “We will not be sitting behind desks on North Terrace. We will be out in communities listening to South Australians and focused on delivering practical solutions”.
“Voters have sent us a clear message that we need to be better, and we’ll keep stepping up.
“My team is united and determined, and we will be working every day to earn the trust of South Australians and demonstrate we are ready to govern.”
Despite One Nation being hot on their heels in a nail-biting election race, the Liberal party can officially claim opposition status with five seats in the lower house: the metropolitan seat of Bragg and regional seats Heysen, Schubert, Flinders and Chaffey.
One Nation is poised to pick up four, with the fourth – Narungga – being recounted after the One Nation candidate’s tight 71-vote lead.
In the upper house, Liberals Ben Hood and Heidi Girolamo were re-elected with a primary vote share of 17.5 per cent. They join continuing members Michelle Lensink, Dennis Hood, Nicola Centofanti and Laura Henderson, who were not up for re-election this year due to upper house members serving eight-year terms.
Hood remains Shadow Treasurer and Girolamo takes on arts and education. Jack Batty picks up the health portfolio – taking on Labor’s Blair Boyer.
Ashton Hurn
Oppositon leader
Shadow Minister for Defence and Space Industries
Shadow Minister for Trade, Industry and Investment
Hurn was propelled into the leadership in December, taking over from Vincent Tarzia. She represents the electorate of Schubert, which includes the Barossa region, and had stand-out moments during the campaign, including naming and shaming a sexist troll and cutting through a leader’s debate, challenging Premier Peter Malinauskas on cutting politicians’ salaries.
Liberal Leader Ashton Hurn was comfortably returned to her Barossa seat of Schubert with 49.2 per cent of first preference votes, according to the Electoral Commission. She entered parliament in 2022 and served as the shadow health minister.
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.
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Josh Teague
Deputy Leader
Shadow Attorney-General
Shadow Minister for Housing
Shadow Minister for Planning
Shadow Minister for Aboriginal Affairs
Teague was the deputy leader under Hurn in the last shadow cabinet.
He held on to his Adelaide Hills seat of Heysen at the March election after a tight race, securing it with a 266-vote lead.
He has been the member for Heysen since 2018, and served as speaker from 2020 to 2021. Prior to state parliament, he was the Honorary Consul of Sweden for South Australia from 2009–2018.
Jack Batty
Manager of Opposition Business
Shadow Minister for Health and Wellbeing
In the March election, Batty salvaged his metropolitan seat of Bragg, the only metro seat the party managed to hold onto after Stephen Patterson lost Morphett to Labor’s Toby Priest.
In the last shadow cabinet, he held the police, education, arts and opposition business portfolios.
Batty entered parliament representing Bragg at a 2023 by-election after former Deputy Premier Vicki Chapman retired.
Before entering parliament, he worked as an advisor to the Australian High Commissioner to the UK, George Brandis and was a long-time staffer and ministerial adviser for former federal MP Christopher Pyne.
Tim Whetstone
Shadow Minister for Police
Shadow Minister for Correctional Services
Shadow Minister for Emergency Services
Whetstone held onto his regional seat of Chaffey despite a challenge from One Nation in the March election.
In the last shadow cabinet, he held the trade, industry and investment portfolios along with emergency services. He was elected in 2010, and was the primary industries and regional development minister during the Marshall government until he resigned in July 2020 after admitting to wrongly claiming travel expenses. He was reappointed to the Liberal frontbench in 2022 but resigned less than a year later after losing his license.
Sam Telfer
Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport
Shadow Minister for Local Government
Shadow Minister for Regional Roads
Shadow Minister for Road Safety
Telfer also held off an orange wave through the regions, hanging onto his Eyre Peninsula seat of Flinders.
In the last shadow cabinet, he held the transport, infrastructure and local government portfolio. Before he was elected to state parliament in 2022, Telfer was mayor of Tumby Bay and president of the Eyre Peninsula Local Government Association.
Heidi Girolamo
Deputy leader in the Legislative Council
Shadow Minister for Education, Training and Skills
Shadow Minister for Arts
Girolamo has been re-elected to the upper house after first being appointed to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of David Ridgway in 2021.
In 2022, Girolamo was promoted to join the shadow cabinet, where she currently holds the role of Deputy Leader in the Legislative Council, Education, Training and Skills, and Arts.
Prior to her career in politics, Girolamo was a chartered accountant and ran small businesses with her family including a pub, post office, deli, bakery, ice-cream shop and café.
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In her first address to parliament in 2021, Girolamo said her friends would dream of being “the next Kylie Minogue”, but her pathway was always to be a parliamentary representative “to represent all South Australians”.
Ben Hood
Shadow Treasurer
Shadow Minister for Small and Family Business
Shadow Minister for Energy and Mining
Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector
Hood kept his role as shadow treasurer and added energy and mining to his responsibilities in the new cabinet.
Hood filled a vacancy in the legislative council in 2023 after Liberal member Stephen Wade resigned. Prior to entering parliament he was the deputy mayor of Mount Gambier.
Hood lives in Mount Gambier with his wife, Ellen, and their three children.
Michelle Lensink
Shadow Minister for Human Services
Shadow Minister for Women
Shadow Minister for Seniors and Aging
Shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs
Lensink has been a long-term servant for the Liberal Party in the upper house. She was first elected in 2003 following a role as the South Australian Young Liberal President in the 1990s.
Under the Marshall Liberal government, Lensink was appointed Minister for Human Services where she was responsible for frontline policy areas including homelessness and social housing, domestic and family violence and youth justice.
In May of 2024, Lensink revealed a shock breast cancer diagnosis, but has since continued to serve in parliament.
Dennis Hood
Shadow Minister for Veteran Affairs
Shadow Minister for Tourism
Shadow Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing
Dennis Hood first joined the upper house in 2006 representing the Family First Party until joining the Australian Conservatives in 2017 before finally joining the Liberal Party after the 2018 state election.
Hood was second on the 2022 Legislative Council ticket where he was re-elected for a further eight-year term. He now holds the portfolio of Veterans Affairs, Tourism, and Recreation, Sport and Racing.
In September of last year, Hood supported Fair Go leader Sarah Game’s controversial abortion bill in parliament saying he “had strong feelings on these matters since I entered the parliament nearly 20 years ago”.
Nicola Centofanti
Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council
Shadow Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development
Shadow Minister for Environment and Water
Centofanti was first elected in 2020 to fill the casual vacancy left by current Liberal senator Andrew McLachlan and is now the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, and holds Primary Industries and Regional Development, and Water portfolios.
Having grown up in the Riverland, Centofanti is an advocate for regional and rural SA, with the delivery of health and education services to regional areas being a major priority.
Recently, she was a member on the Joint Committee on Harmful Algal Blooms in South Australia, where she was critical of the state government’s handling of the crisis.
Prior to politics, Centofanti was a rural veterinarian where she worked at the Riverland Veterinary Clinic in Berri.
Laura Henderson
Shadow Minister for Child Protection
Shadow Minister for the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence
Laura Henderson was first elected as a Liberal upper house MLC in March 2022.
In January 2025, Henderson received a promotion in the outer shadow cabinet to Assistant Minister to the Leader and Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs. It followed a cabinet reshuffle with the departure of Jing Lee and John Gardner.
She has now received her first shadow cabinet role, taking on the Child Protection and Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence.
Henderson sits on the Legislative Review Committee, Crime and Public Integrity Policy Committee, Printing Committee, and the Joint Parliamentary Service Committee.
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