South Australia's opposition leader has delivered an ultimatum to his own party – no more controversial private member’s bills in the lead up to the next state election. Vincent Tarzia says a failed bid to change the state's abortion laws hurt the Liberals chances in its crushing defeat to Labor in the by-election in Black at the weekend. The new leader has also turned the heat on the seat's outgoing Liberal MP, David Speirs.
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00:00Drawing a line in the ashes of the black by-election loss.
00:06Training season is over for those sorts of bills, we've got to go back to basics now.
00:10Vincent Tarzia has warned his Liberal colleagues with just 16 months to the next state election,
00:16he won't stand for any more private members' bills from his party, like Ben Hood's attempt
00:20to change South Australia's abortion laws.
00:23We now can see and understand what these distractions have done to the party.
00:27That debate has been had, I'm glad it's behind us now, and now we get on with focusing on
00:32the bread and butter issues of this state.
00:34Mr Hood says he has no intention of bringing any more private bills to parliament, but
00:39he wasn't the only one in the firing line of the new leader, who says some of the blame
00:44should go to the man he replaced, David Spears.
00:47We know that there was an unprecedented set of circumstances that put us here, a former
00:52leader of the party being charged with drug-related charges, that has hurt our brand, people have
00:58punished us.
00:59Counting has begun on the more than 10,000 early votes, with the Liberals hopeful of
01:03gaining ground to drag Labor's two-party preferred swing towards it back under 10 points.
01:09It won't stop Labor adding to its tally in the lower house and reducing the opposition
01:13to just 13 seats, but the Premier has warned his colleagues not to be complacent.
01:18We've got a lot more to do, there are challenges out there that we've got to confront, so we've
01:22just got to keep getting things done, that's all I'm focused on.
01:25The Libs can worry about the Libs.
01:26The Electoral Commission expects to have a clearer view on the final count in black on
01:30Tuesday.