The SA Liberal Party decides today whether its future lies with Alex Antic. Delegates to the party's state council vote on the presidency at Saturday's annual general meeting, the ABC reports, in a ballot the right-wing senator's own supporters are framing as a referendum on whether the SA Liberal Party remains a conservative party.
Senator Antic is contesting the ballot against Nicola Centofanti, the Liberals' SA Upper House leader — described by the ABC as a non-Antic aligned conservative with the backing of moderates hoping to stop an Antic presidency. The state presidency is roughly equivalent to a company board chair, overseeing campaign preparations and internal meeting agendas — and it comes with a spot on the party's federal executive, alongside opposition leader Angus Taylor and federal president Tony Abbott.
The vote lands days after a bruising week in Canberra. Senator Antic's bill to let parents keep their family tax benefit if they object to vaccinating their children — on "personal, philosophical, religious or medical belief" grounds — was brought to a vote on Wednesday and defeated, with 34 senators voting it down. The bill, which would have reversed the "No Jab, No Pay" policy introduced under the Turnbull government in 2015, was opposed by Liberal frontbencher Anne Ruston, who cited Australian Medical Association advice and raised concern about a recent rise in whooping cough and measles cases. Senator Antic was joined by One Nation's senators and Ralph Babet, Clive Palmer's sole representative in parliament. Labor senator Murray Watt seized on the scene: "Are they actually happy to have a vaccine sceptic in their party who was literally cheered on by One Nation senators during his speech?"
Whatever senior colleagues make of him, Senator Antic's base inside the party is real. The ABC reports he has spent the last five years spearheading a recruitment drive for like-minded conservative members in local branches — members who elected the delegates voting today. His supporters argue an Antic presidency is the best chance to wrestle back votes from One Nation: at the last poll taken in August, the SA Liberals' primary vote of 17 per cent sat eight points behind One Nation's 25. The ABC has previously reported that the prospect has led some in the party to discuss a federal takeover, over fears about the party's relationship with One Nation and its capacity to win elections.
In his pitch to delegates, Senator Antic wrote that he wanted to "restore policy authority to members". "We need economic action on inflation, housing and energy without surrendering to net-zero orthodoxy and we need to stand up for the cultural inheritance of this country," he wrote, adding that the party needed to treat the One Nation "challenge" as "the warning it is" — "not by copying every One Nation position, but by proving that the Liberal Party can once again be the vehicle for the values that made voters want to vote blue".
The ABC's analysis notes a members-first policy direction could pose a challenge to SA Liberal leader Ashton Hurn's authority over the party's direction, and today's result will also hint at where the numbers lie for next year's likely SA Senate preselection. Current president Leah Blyth — who is not recontesting the position — kept her counsel when asked about the vaccine bill on 891 ABC Adelaide on Thursday: "There are about 200 people that are able to cast their judgement on that on Saturday."