Schubert – SA 2026

It’s been reported that there is an internal push in the Liberals for Ashton Hurn to take over the SA Liberals leadership. The Liberals’ polling is so dire that they may be left with only 3 seats after the state election. Schubert, being one of those seats the Liberals would retain alongside Flinders and Chaffey, Hurn won’t challenge but has suggested she wouldn’t refuse being drafted into the leadership.

I read about it. Both Vince Tarzia and Ashton Hurn have denied the speculation. Would Ashton Hurn save the furniture better?

She could become the leader post-election if other Liberals get wiped out.

Better to just let the voters throw out the fur inure. Start from scratch

Like I’ve said for Victoria, changing the leader isn’t the problem here I haven’t heard negative things about Vince Tarzia as a leader more the party is really divided. I’d argue changing the leader so close to an election would just solidify their fate and could only make the result worse.

Sorry I mean NSW not Victoria.

Don’t really know if this has been brought up, Labor has announced a candidate here, James Rothe (their candidate in Barker in 2025).

I’m pretty sure if the swings in most opinion polls were uniform, this seat would barely flip. But this seat has been Liberal heartland, more rural in character, and Ashton Hurn doesn’t appear to be as controversial and as vulnerable as some of her colleagues.

Will say a Liberal retain for now but could get interesting if Labor is having a particularly good night here.

This is probably a liberal hold. The swing will be higher in central Adelaide than here. Changing the captain of ship after it’s sunk doesn’t do anything except creat confusion and panic. Sorry but the ship in SA isn’t sinking anymore it’s already gone down. Imagine the titanic crew changing the captain after everyone’s already loaded into life rafts. The ships is already flooded and is starting to go down the bow is underwater Leonardo do caprio is making his way to stern.

I found the leadership speculation to be interesting. It probably sprouted as a result of Liberal leadership changes interstate. Ashton is a first-term female MP, like the Liberal leaders of NSW and VIC. She’s 34 and will turn 35 before election day.

@ John
I agree with you i dont think changing leaders is a good idea at this very late stage. Vincent Tarzia job is just to save as many of the furniture as possible and write off the house. They need to save as many rural seats i think this should be easier as I believe swing will be concentrated in metro Adelaide. I think Tarzia should try and save at least one seat is Adelaide which Bragg so Jack Batty can be leader post election. I think it is best to have an Adealide based leader if possible as 80% of SA population is in Adelaide and thre is no path to even a minority government without winning as many Adealide seats (maybe not a majority).

I think Ashton Hurn could be good as an interim/temporary leader post 2026 if the Liberals do get wiped out completely from Metropolitan Adelaide (with Jack Batty losing in Bragg). She would be like Libby Mettam in WA or Sussan Ley federally, filling the void for one term until the party can find someone with a higher profile to run and win in 2030.

Ashton Hurn has been unanimously elected to be the SA Liberal leader. There’s a little over 100 days till the election.