Who is new South Australian Opposition Leader David Speirs?

It’s been a week of transition with a touch of turmoil for the South Australian Liberal Party. 

David Speirs has been installed as its first new parliamentary leader in more than nine years, taking over from Steven Marshall in the wake of last month’s election drubbing.

But within hours, his ascension was overshadowed when former deputy premier Vickie Chapman announced she’d quit politics and force a by-election.

The depleted Liberals have since settled on a new shadow cabinet as the party looks to rebuild after being returned to the opposition benches after just one term in office.

It’s a long road ahead.

So who’s the new guy?

Born in Scotland, Mr Speirs’s parents settled in Hallett Cove in Adelaide’s southern suburbs after immigrating to Australia 20 years ago. 

Mr Speirs worked as a public servant in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet under former Labor administrations and served on Marion Council before entering state politics.

He won the seat of Bright at the 2014 election, defeating Labor minister Chloe Fox.

A fundamental redraw of the state’s electoral boundaries didn’t hurt him and he was returned in the renamed seat of Black on an extended margin in 2018.

After last month’s election, Mr Speirs is the Liberal’s only suburban MP south of Daws Road — an island of blue in a sea of red after Labor’s victories in the seats of Elder, Davenport, Gibson and Waite.

David Spiers promoted women and youth into his first shadow cabinet.(ABC News: Rory McClaren)

At 37 years and four months, he’s become the South Australian Liberal Party’s youngest-ever leader, pipping Steele Hall and John Olsen. They both went on to become premier.

As for spelling his name, it’s spelt Speirs. Not Spears, as in Brittany Spears. Nor I-before-E Spiers. And no, he doesn’t host ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday morning. That’s David Speers.

Mr Speirs says he has the most interesting accent of any opposition leader in recent times.

“I’d ask the TVs wherever possible in the first couple of months to use subtitles,” he quipped at a press conference on Tuesday.

“That’s what we do on our YouTube channel and you should see the predictive text sometime, what that comes up with,” he added.

“But we as a party will present a fresh, diverse face going forward with two migrants in the leadership team here of four.”

Generational change

Mr Speirs has promised to lead a united team — a bold claim for the head of a party with a past riddled with division.

But Mr Speirs isn’t the first leader to make such a promise.

More than 15 years ago, a deal put former factional and family rivals Iain Evans and Vickie Chapman on the same ticket. 

That attempt to heal party rifts lasted a year.

Some generational change came with Mr Marshall, who with Ms Chapman as his deputy, managed to stabilise the leadership without change or challenge from 2013 until last month’s election loss.

But early on in their government, the old divisions reared their head, with backbenchers crossing the floor on legislation and others backgrounding media on frustrations with decisions made with two moderates at the helm.

Then, after a crushing electoral defeat, Mr Speirs hoped to get some clear air and present a fresh leadership team.

But that was spoilt when Ms Chapman contacted party members about her plans to resign in the immediate aftermath of the leadership vote on Tuesday — a sign that old disunity was alive and well.

David Speirs said Vickie Chapman’s career was one to be celebrated and he had no issue with the state’s former deputy premier.(ABC News)

Mr Speirs says he has a good relationship with the former deputy premier, but her decision to steal his thunder with her own announcement tells a different story.

Not only that, but on the day Mr Speirs announced his nomination for leader, Ms Chapman made a rare social media post, recalling a time she was told she was too young and inexperienced for a leadership role — at the age of 48.

As ill-timed as it is, Ms Chapman’s resignation could help a little in Mr Speirs’s attempt at unity.

He insists he is not aligned to any of the Liberal Party’s factions. 

David Speirs has pointed to his work opening reservoirs for public use as an example of his progressive views.(Facebook: David Speirs MP)

He has talked up his progressive credentials, particularly during his four years as environment minister, which saw the ban of single-use plastics rolled out.

But he’s socially conservative and didn’t back reforms to abortion laws and voluntary assisted dying, which were dealt with as conscience matters during the last parliamentary term.

These positions put him at odds with senior colleagues like Ms Chapman and Mr Marshall, who supported the changes.

The new team

The election loss has presented an opportunity for a significant shake-up of the now-shadow cabinet from the line-up that served for four years in government. 

It builds on the theme of generational change.

Of the 15 shadow cabinet members, six are in their thirties. Seven were not part of the Marshall cabinet. Three were only elected to parliament for the first time this year.

Gone are familiar faces from government and opposition like Steven Marshall, Vickie Chapman, Stephen Wade and David Pisoni.

The Liberal Party’s frontbench sees a number of new MPs promoted to shadow portfolios.(ABC News: Rory McClaren)

In are Nicola Centofanti, Jing Lee, Matt Cowdrey, Heidi Girolamo and first-termers Ashton Hurn, Penny Pratt and Sam Telfer. 

Ms Chapman’s decision to step aside last November from her duties amid the Ombudsman’s investigation into her decision to scrap a deep sea port on Kangaroo Island left the former government with just two women at the cabinet table during its dying months.

There are now six in the shadow ministry.

Factionally, there’s also more balance between moderate and conservative MPs in the shadow line-up. 

During the election campaign, Mr Marshall conceded that was something he hadn’t managed to do at times during his reign.

He cited it needed to be addressed going forward and Mr Speirs has started to do that, clearly with a eye to quelling discontent before it arises.

He’s also taken the step of splitting some policy responsibilities across multiple MPs.

Ashton Hurn will take on the crucial health portfolio in the Liberal Party’s shadow cabinet.(ABC News)

Three people – Ashton Hurn, Penny Pratt and Tim Whetstone – will look after different areas of health, which was a problem policy area for the Liberals in government and during the campaign.

Ms Hurn, who replaced former transport and infrastructure minister Stephan Knoll in the Barossa Valley seat of Schubert, will take the lead, with Mr Whetstone charged with looking after mental health and suicide prevention, while Ms Pratt handles regional and preventative health. 

“It is a slightly different structure,” Mr Speirs said as he unveiled his new team on Thursday.

“It doesn’t mirror Labor’s policy areas portfolio by portfolio. From opposition, I don’t think that’s necessary.”

How big is the challenge from here?

In short, it is significant. Mr Speirs says the party can win the next election in 2026. But history is against him and his party.

Labor’s victory last month was the first time a one-term South Australian state government has been ousted since the Liberal’s defeat at the 1982 election.

Meanwhile, the last time the Liberals regained office from Labor after one term in opposition was in March 1968, a result made possible with the support of Riverland independent Tom Stott.

South Australian Opposition Leader David Speirs (second from left) with Deputy Legislative Council Leader Jing Lee (left), Deputy Opposition Leader John Gardner and Legislative Council Leader Nicola Centofanti.(ABC News: Brant Cumming)

As for numbers, the Liberals have been left with 16 of 47 House of Assembly seats following last month’s defeat.hrist

A party needs 24 to govern. 

Not only will a Speirs-led Liberal Party need to win back seats in four years to get close to governing, it will also need to hold what it has with once safe electorates now left marginal.

More immediately, there’s the added complication of Ms Chapman’s departure, which will force a by-election in Bragg.