Just over ten months ago, former Liberal Opposition Leader David Speirs walked out of the Adelaide Magistrates Court a convicted man, having pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying drugs. Now, in less than a week, he could be making a return to the South Australian parliament.
“I gave this a lot of consideration… and I felt I had a reasonable level of support in the community, I feel well in myself [and] I’ve got a lot of things I think I can still contribute,” Speirs told 7.30.
Speirs is set to contest the seat of Black as an independent. This is the electorate he represented for the majority of his parliamentary career before his resignation in 2024, following the emergence of a video depicting him snorting a substance from a plate.
The Road to Resignation and Charges
Following the video’s release, Speirs was charged by police. While these charges were not directly linked to the content of the video itself, the incident marked a significant turning point. Initially, Speirs claimed the video was a deepfake. However, he later admitted to having taken cocaine as a means of coping with the immense pressure of his role as the state’s Opposition Leader.
“I wanted to go to sleep and never wake up at some points,” he confessed. “There would be leaks to the media, not necessarily about me, but about things in the party, there was infighting, I just didn’t think I could ever get clear air. I don’t regret becoming Opposition Leader because someone needed to pick up the pieces after the [2022] election, but it took a massive personal toll on me. I was out of the house by 6 am most mornings. I often wasn’t back by 10 pm. The endlessness and the negativity of being Opposition Leader wore me to just the worst place.”
Seeking a Second Chance
Now, Speirs is expressing hope that the community that elected him three times can look beyond his past transgressions.
“It’s in the past now, but I made bad mistakes, I surrounded myself with people that I shouldn’t have,” Speirs stated. “I’m owning it, I’m saying sorry to the people that I failed… and I failed a lot of people, but I failed myself as much as anything. Second chances are not given lightly, they’re earned and… I feel I’ve gotten that second chance from this community, and that gets me out of bed every morning.”
Community Reactions: A Divided Response
However, as 7.30 joined Speirs during his campaign at the local Hallett Cove shops, it became evident that not all constituents are ready to offer him another opportunity.
One constituent, Geoffrey Boumard, expressed his strong disapproval directly to Speirs. “Don’t talk to us, you shoot through, we don’t want to know you, get going,” Boumard told Speirs as he approached him at a local coffee shop. “I don’t want him in there. He should be ashamed of himself with what he’s done, with what he did in his position that he was in, is absolutely shocking… and he’s got the audacity to come back. I hope nobody votes for him because he doesn’t deserve to have a job and that’s the end of the story.”
Conversely, Speirs has also encountered support. His history as a local councillor in the area prior to his parliamentary run has clearly resonated with some voters.
“Well, I don’t need every vote… I need 50 per cent plus one to get across the line, with or without preferences. I don’t expect everyone to feel that they can trust me, I don’t expect everyone to back me,” Speirs acknowledged.
Addressing Drug Supply Allegations
Speirs also addressed the criticism he has faced regarding the supply of drugs to individuals at his home, though he remained hesitant to delve into specifics.
“Those are fair concerns to raise and I apologise to anyone who feels concerned about that; they should be, but at the end of the day, there’s a lot more to that story than has ever been fleshed out fully. I don’t think it ever will be. I’m certainly not going to talk about that widely because there has been a significant amount of innuendo and misinformation put into the public domain about that. I’m willing to accept responsibility for what I was accused of. I am willing to say that illicit substances shouldn’t have been in my home, and other people shouldn’t have had access to it. I paid the price for that. I apologise that people feel that way, but it is in the past now.”
Eligibility Questions and Electoral Landscape
The question of Speirs’s eligibility to stand for election has also been raised. Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Sydney Law School, Anne Twomey, highlighted potential ambiguities in South Australian legislation.
“There are ambiguities in the South Australian legislation,” Professor Twomey commented. “If he did get elected and it was challenged, it would be something for a court to decide upon.”
However, South Australian Electoral Commissioner Mick Sherry expressed confidence in Speirs’s qualification to run. Under his interpretation of the law, Speirs is eligible because his convictions are in the past.
“The Constitution Act makes various references to the qualifications of a candidate; it primarily relates to if a member of parliament was sitting at the time a number of circumstances (criminal offences) would take place, it would deem them ineligible to continue to sit… it doesn’t refer to at the time of nomination,” Mr Sherry explained. “I am confident that he is qualified to stand for the election.”
Adding to the challenge of Speirs’s comeback, both major parties have placed him last on their how-to-vote cards. Flinders University political scientist Rob Manwaring noted that while Speirs might be eligible to be elected, securing victory without preference support will be a formidable task.
“Given the relative recency of the events which engulfed him and his leadership, he faces a really significant uphill battle to get over the finishing line,” Mr Manwaring observed.
Speirs himself has conceded that his chances of winning are less than 50 per cent.
“There is a lot of support for me in the community,” he said. “But is a lot of support, 20 per cent, 30 per cent, or is it… higher than that? I’m giving this one last roll of the dice, seeing if the community wants me back; if they don’t, I’m going to go and do something else.”
