Former Opposition Leader David Speirs is set to face court for the first time on November 15th after being charged with drug offences. And with his imminent registration set to trigger a by-election, Labor wasted no time in revealing its challenger for the Liberal held seat.
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00:00Back to black, Labor turning to Alex Dighton once more as its candidate for the electorate
00:08in Adelaide South.
00:10We want to hit the ground running.
00:12One of the advantages that we have in this stable Labor Party is that we can just get
00:17on with the task.
00:18We love this community, we love living in such a beautiful part of the world.
00:23The teacher contested black at the 2022 state election, losing to David Spears.
00:29We're quick to reveal the Hallett co-father will get another chance to try and enter parliament
00:33at the by-election, being brought on by the former opposition leader's decision to quit
00:37politics after being arrested and charged with drug offences.
00:41Peter Malinowska says it will be hard to repeat the by-election victory his party secured
00:46in March, when Labor took the seat of the departing former Liberal Premier, Stephen
00:51Marshall.
00:52Particularly given that the margin is a lot bigger than what it was in Dunstan, but we're
00:56going to give it our best shot.
00:57Mr Spears is set to go before a magistrate for the first time on November 15.
01:02The Premier knew about his arrest more than a week before it became public on the weekend,
01:07the police commissioner told Peter Malinowska on September 27th.
01:11The question, who did Peter Malinowska tell?
01:13Look Rory, this was certainly no one that would be leaking the information to the media,
01:20that's for sure.
01:21While Labor might have its candidates sorted for the black by-election, it's a different
01:25story for the Liberals, who are yet to settle on who will run in place of Mr Spears.
01:30So look, we do have some people that we're talking to at the moment and I'm hoping that
01:36we will get that situation finalised hopefully this week.
01:39Also finalised, the future of former Cabinet Minister David Pessoni.
01:43He's confirmed he won't contest the 2026 state election after holding the seat of Unley
01:48for 20 years.