SMH · Rob Harris · Sunday 22 March 2026
The South Australian Liberals face potential wipeout at Saturday's state election, with One Nation poised to fill the vacuum — a result that could reshape conservative politics nationally.
A party that stands for nothing eventually falls for anything — and in South Australia, 'anything' turned out to be Pauline Hanson. The Liberals didn't lose these voters; they mislaid them, the way you mislay car keys you stopped using because you forgot where you were driving. One Nation isn't a movement — it's a forwarding address for mail the Liberals stopped collecting. The national party should worry less about Saturday's result and more about why nobody noticed the building was empty.