State Liberal leader Vincent Tarzia steps down from leadership

ABC NEWS (Australia)

South Australia’s liberal leader Vincent Tarzia is quitting the leadership, just three months out from the next state election. Mr Tarzia says he wants to spend time with his family and the local community.

Transcript

00:00He says it's about balancing the different things that he's been weighing up.

00:07One is representing his local electorate in the north-eastern suburbs and the other is

00:12spending time with his young family.

00:14He has a four-year-old and a five-month-old.

00:16So he says he's made this decision, being opposition leader is one of the hardest jobs

00:21he says, and he's made this decision to try and balance those other important things in

00:26his life.

00:27But of course, this decision and the announcement of it comes about 15 weeks out from the election

00:34and also off the back of a number of polls that have shown, you know, an extreme, essentially

00:40an electoral disaster if the Liberal Party continues on the path that it's on.

00:45And the latest of those was actually Liberal internal polling that leaked out to the media

00:51and multiple sources have told the ABC would have seen the Liberals lose the majority of

00:56the 13 seats that they have left in State Parliament.

01:00But despite all of those pressures on Vincent Tarzia, he told the media in this press conference

01:06that he hasn't been pushed out of the job.

01:10No colleague has pushed me.

01:13There's been no letter petition signed or anything like that.

01:17No colleague has told me to step down.

01:20You know, if any of you have got any of those sources, you're within your rights to say who they are.

01:24But nobody has said to me that I should step down.

01:26This is a decision that I have made of my own accord.

01:28Labor has essentially been in power in South Australia for the best part of two decades.

01:34We did have the term of the Marshall government, which, you know, that was during COVID.

01:39Stephen Marshall saw the state through COVID, but only lasted one term.

01:44And Labor's Peter Malinowska stormed back into power in 2022 off the back of a really strong campaign

01:51focusing on the health system.

01:53And that left the Liberal Party in a pretty difficult position with a very reduced number of seats in Parliament.

02:00And the Liberal Party has also faced other leadership challenges.

02:05After that unsuccessful election for the Liberal Party, Stephen Marshall retired from politics.

02:11He was succeeded by David Spears, who then also quit the leadership and was later convicted on drug supply charges.

02:19Vincent Tarzia took over from David Spears.

02:22It's now speculated that the best chance of leadership that they've got is Ashton Hearn,

02:28who's currently the shadow health minister.

02:31She previously was an advisor to Stephen Marshall.

02:35She has said in recent press conferences that she has no interest in the leadership,

02:40but that will now be decided in a ballot of party members.

02:44So, it's my pleasure.

02:52You know, I'm happy to see you at that time.

02:53It's a very hard time for the rest of the day I've got to hear from that environment.

02:55It's been a hard time for me to get to see you on purpose.

02:57So let's do this.

02:58I have to hang out here.

02:58I'm happy to see you on the streets.

02:59But today, you know, this has been a tollje.

03:01So I've noticed a few years I've got to see you on next step.

03:04So I'm happy to hear from surprising them,

03:06I'm happy to see you on Instagram through the other side.

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