{"id":897334,"date":"2026-09-19T04:32:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T04:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897334\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T04:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T04:32:16","slug":"senator-alex-antic-wins-sa-liberal-presidency-defeating-nicola-centofanti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897334\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator Alex Antic wins SA Liberal presidency, defeating Nicola Centofanti"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liberal senator Alex Antic has been elected president of the South Australian Liberal Party in a ballot of party delegates on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

The right-wing backbencher, who has praised members of One Nation and repeatedly crossed the floor against the Coalition, defeated SA Upper House leader Nicola Centofanti in the ballot 119 votes to 73.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He has previously vowed to give Liberal members a “genuine say in the policy direction” of the party.<\/p>\n

State president is an internal role roughly equivalent to chair of a company board, overseeing campaign preparations and setting meeting agendas.<\/p>\n

The ABC has previously reported that the prospect of an Antic presidency has led some in the party to discuss federal intervention to take over management of the SA division.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Alex Antic defeated Nicola Centofanti (pictured) in a ballot of Liberal Party delegates on Saturday morning. (ABC News: Will Hunter)<\/p>\n

Ms Centofanti, a non-Antic aligned conservative, had the backing of moderates and conservatives who wanted to stop an Antic presidency.<\/p>\n

But his support among the party’s roughly 200 State Council delegates follows a five-year recruitment drive led by Antic in local party branches.<\/p>\n

Liberal Party state director Alex Hyde confirmed Senator Antic’s presidency on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

“The new president will convene the state executive soon and we all look forward to getting on with the job,” Mr Hyde said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"Liberal<\/p>\n

Alex Antic has previously praised members of One Nation. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n

Senator Antic has been a prominent vaccine sceptic<\/a> in the parliament and has expressed admiration for US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

He has also praised One Nation members of parliament and argued a post-election coalition with the party should not be ruled out.<\/p>\n

His alignment with One Nation on certain policy matters has led to speculation he could defect to the party if he lost the presidency.<\/p>\n

One Nation SA leader Cory Bernardi, who was pictured sharing a beer with Antic during the March state election campaign<\/a>, said on Friday he would “welcome Alex Antic into One Nation in a flash”.<\/p>\n

“I’d welcome him at any turn. He’s a great political talent,” he told 891 ABC Adelaide.<\/p>\n

Antic\u2019s presidency bid exposes bitter divisions over SA Libs direction<\/a><\/p>\n

Liberal senator Alex Antic’s bid for the SA Liberal presidency has insiders speculating about what it could mean for the future direction of the party.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Senator Antic has not yet commented on his election as state president and media were not allowed in for the proceedings of the Liberal Party’s AGM.<\/p>\n

In a pre-meeting pitch to delegates, he wrote that he would “restore policy authority to members” if elected president \u2014 something which could pose a challenge to moderate SA Liberal leader Ashton Hurn.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“We also need to treat the One Nation challenge as the warning it is.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

\"Ashton<\/p>\n

Ashton Hurn downplayed the potential for greater member influence over the parliamentary team’s policymaking. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

But Ms Hurn downplayed the potential for greater member influence over the parliamentary team’s policymaking, pointing to existing mechanisms in the party.<\/p>\n

After the meeting, Ms Hurn said that Senator Antic is not “insinuating that the parliamentary team is bound by policy motions from the state body”.<\/p>\n

Asked if she was concerned about the prospect of federal intervention, Ms Hurn said: “There’s been a bit of talk about it but, in short, no.<\/p>\n

“There are things that I hope that we can work together on and make sure that we can rectify into the future.”<\/p>\n

Liberal Party grapples with promoting Alex Antic at high-stakes AGM<\/a><\/p>\n

If you wanted a sense of the divide between right-wing senator Alex Antic and some of his Liberal colleagues, you only have to look at events in parliament this week.<\/p>\n

Regarding the policy differences between herself and Senator Antic, Ms Hurn said: “Since when has disagreement become such a bad thing in politics?<\/p>\n

“We have different views in the Liberal Party and we embrace that, but so too do the Labor Party,” she added, arguing the Labor party was “bitterly divided” on AUKUS.<\/p>\n

“Of course, I don’t support or agree with Senator Antic on everything, but I think that’s a healthy thing \u2014 that is part of what makes our democracy and importantly our Liberal Party so great.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Senator<\/p>\n

Senator Antic replaces fellow Liberal senator Leah Blyth. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n

Senator Antic replaces fellow Liberal senator Leah Blyth as the party’s SA president.<\/p>\n

Senator Blyth won the role in 2024 with Antic’s endorsement before becoming a senator.<\/p>\n

She had indicated earlier this year she did not intend to stand for another one-year term as president.<\/p>\n

The ABC reported earlier this year that she is also facing a preselection battle for her senate spot<\/a>, with some delegates on State Council loyal to Senator Antic withdrawing their support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liberal senator Alex Antic has been elected president of the South Australian Liberal Party in a ballot of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[236290,64,8931,63,161543,4273,10940,466116,44,242117,40167,255590,171039,1124],"class_list":["post-897334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-alex-antic","tag-au","tag-auspol","tag-australia","tag-leah-blyth","tag-liberal","tag-liberal-party","tag-liberal-presidency","tag-news","tag-nicola-centofanti","tag-president","tag-sa-liberal-party","tag-sa-liberals","tag-south-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}