South Australia may be considered by outsiders as a “quiet” place where not a lot happens, but its political history is proof that this perception is completely false.
From cocaine sniffing opposition leaders and fraudsters to politicians getting king-hit in the street and telling South Australians to vote for the wrong party, SA has its fair share of gaffes and scandals.
So join with us for a short view back to the past, and a look at ten political gaffes and scandals that have stuck long in the mind.
David Speirs
Perhaps the most notorious political scandal in recent years saw former Liberal and opposition leader David Speirs arrested after The Advertiser published a video of Mr Speirs snorting a white powder off a plate in his kitchen in June 2024.
The fallout of that video saw Mr Speirs resign from the Liberal Party and later parliament after SA Police raided his home in October.
Mr Speirs vowed to clear his name maintaining for some months that the video was an “elaborate hoax” and a “deepfake”, despite AI experts verifying its authenticity.
In March 2025, he changed his tune, pleading guilty to two drug supply charges, after it was revealed he had supplied illicit substances to two former members of a church youth group, of which Mr Speirs was a youth leader.
He was sentenced in April to 37.5 hours of community service and fined $9000.
Troy Bell
Once one of Mount Gambier’s most respected men, former-MP Troy Bell is currently in jail after being found guilty of stealing $436,023.24 meant for not-for-profit education organisations and underprivileged students.
Bell, who served as member for Mount Gambier from 2014 until his resignation in 2025, was charged in August 2017 with 20 counts of theft and six counts of aggravated dishonest dealings with documents following an ICAC investigation.
A court heard the offending dated back to 2009 and involved money “specifically earmarked” to support high school students, mainly at Mount Gambier’s Independent Learning Centre a facility Bell founded in 2007.
Upon being charged, Bell resigned from the Liberal Party, but continued to hold his seat, being re-elected in 2018 and 2022 by the people of Mount Gambier despite the charges against him.
He was found guilty in September 2024, and sentenced to up to five years in jail in October 2025 after his appeal bid failed.
2020 Expenses scandal
COVID-19 was not the only issue plaguing the Marshall government in 2020.
An ICAC investigation into the country member accommodation allowance, a payment available for MPs living over 75 kilometres outside of Adelaide, led to the resignations of Ministers Tim Whetstone, Stephan Knoll and David Ridgway and Legislative Council President Terry Stephens in June.
Under parliamentary rules at the time, country MPs could claim up to $234 per night if required to stay in the city to attend parliament or undertake work duties.
Nine Liberal MPs, Labor’s Eddie Hughes and Independent Geoff Brock were all investigated.
Then-Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Ann Vanstone cleared nine country MPs in October 2020, including Mr Hughes and Mr Brock.
Mr Whetstone and Mr Knoll, who collectively paid back more than $40,000 in expenses, were also cleared, but continued looking into the expenses of Mr Stephens and Mr Ellis.
Mr Stephens was subsequently cleared, and returned as Upper House President in May 2022.
Perhaps the most high-profile casualty of the scandal was then-Liberal backbencher Fraser Ellis, who repaid $42,130 in allowances claimed for staying in Adelaide at the home of a parliamentary colleague, but was charged in February 2021 with 23 counts of deception.
Mr Ellis resigned from the Liberal Party, and contested the 2022 election as an independent after the Liberals declined to endorse him as candidate for Narungga.
He was successful in his re-election bid and served another four years before being ousted by One Nation at the 2026 state poll.
After a lengthy trial, he was found guilty of four counts of deception and acquitted on 19 counts over misuse of the members accommodation allowance in 2024.
Mr Ellis’ attempt to appeal the decision failed, and in 2026 he was found guilty of an additional three counts.
Sam Duluk
Former Waite MP Sam Duluk’s parliamentary career was torpedoed by a boozy Christmas party in 2019, that led to him suspending his Liberal Party membership and fighting a losing election battle as an independent.
A then rising star in the Liberal Party, it all came undone for Mr Duluk after he was accused of sexual misconduct, racism and making homophobic comments at a Christmas party.
Mr Duluk denied making racist and homophobic comments.
Mr Duluk was accused of sending SA-Best MP Connie Bonaros unwanted text messages and slapping her on the bottom, and was later found not guilty of assault by a magistrate, who described his behaviour at the party as that of a “drunken pest”.
Mr Duluk apologised to Ms Bonaros and other party attendees for his behaviour, but was booted from the party room and suspended his Liberal membership.
He contested the 2022 election as an independent, winning just 19 percent of the vote.
Mr Duluk has not been entirely absent from politics, returning to the Liberal party as state treasurer in 2024.
Oakden
The scandal that may have brought down the Weatherill government.
A scathing 2018 ICAC report by Bruce Lander found evidence of systemic mistreatment of elderly residents at the Oakden Older Person Mental Health Facility in 2017.
The inquiries generated more than 37,000 documents, totalling more than 300,000 pages.
Mr Lander’s report found maladministration by five public servants, and also laid out criticisms of senior ministers in then-Premier Jay Weatherill’s government.
The report described former Mental Health Minister Leesa Vlahos, who held the portfolio when a damning report from the state’s chief psychiatrist was released in 2017, as “deliberately untruthful”, belligerent and aggressive” and “generally unhelpful”.
“She did not lead in addressing the crisis. She followed,” Mr Lander said in his report.
Ms Vlahos, then member for Taylor, had resigned as Labor’s lead candidate on their upper house ticket just days before the ICAC report was released.
“While I expect no adverse finding, I am concerned that the timing of the release of this report could mean that my candidature could become a distraction at this most important time,” she said in a statement at the time.
The publication of the ICAC report came less than a month before the 2018 state election, inopportune timing for the Weatherill government, which was defeated by the Steven Marshall-led Liberal Party to end a 16-year Labor government.
Weatherill vs Frydenberg
Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg got a less than warm welcome when he arrived in Adelaide in March 2017 to open a federally-funded virtual power plant.
The Liberal MP found himself sat between Labor Premier Jay Weatherill and Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis, before taking part in an awkward live press conference where he was directly called out by Mr Weatherill over the Commonwealth’s energy policy.
“State governments, regardless of their political hue, need to take responsibility for ensuring the stability of the system,” Mr Frydenberg said.
Mr Frydenberg claimed he “didn’t even know” that Mr Weatherill was invited to the press conference, and deflected questions about whether his appearance in Adelaide was designed to one up Mr Weatherill’s announcement of a half-a-billion dollar plan to secure SA’s power supply.
“I’ve got to say it is a little galling to be standing here next to a man that’s been standing up with his Prime Minister bagging South Australia at every step of the way over the last six months to be standing here on this occasion, him suggesting that we want to work together is a disgrace,” Mr Weatherill said.
“The way in which your government has treated our state, it is the most anti-South Australian government we have seen from a Commonwealth government in living memory.”
Mr Frydenberg later described a “desperate” Mr Weatherill as trying to “crash-tackle” the Commonwealth’s announcement.
“I actually think it reflects very poorly on the premier that he has to engage in this type of petty politics.”
‘Vote Labor tomorrow’ – Liberal Leader Steven Marshall
Aiming to end 12 years of Labor domination, Liberal Leader Steven Marshall chose to visit a chocolate factory on his final day of campaigning ahead of the 2014 state election.
In his press conference, Mr Marshall said he’d enjoyed the campaign, before issuing his final plea to the people of South Australia.
“We’re only a few short hours now away from when the polls open,” he said.
“I think if people in South Australia want change, they want a better future, they want to grow our economy, then they need to vote Labor tomorrow.”
Mr Marshall did not realise the mistake he’d made, and pressed forward with his remarks, only realising when a reporter asked him about the slip of the tongue.
Many in the electorate didn’t take Mr Marshall’s advice, and the Liberals polled nearly 92,000 more votes than Labor.
However, the Libs fell short of the six seats needed to govern, with Mr Marshall having to wait another four years for his time in the top job.
Kevin Foley
It’s rare that a politician, walking home alone in the streets of Adelaide’s CBD, gets punched in the head, but that’s exactly what happened to Kevin Foley.
After a night out on the town, the then-deputy premier was king hit and left with facial injuries outside a Waymouth St night spot on November 28, 2010.
The incident came less than 24 hours after a South Australian Labor conference in which Mr Foley and Premier Mike Rann were asked to step down.
Mr Foley’s attacker, Ante Grgich, was later arrested and given a suspended two-month jail term on condition of a one-year good behaviour bond.
Grgich was also ordered by the court to pay Mr Foley $661.20 to replace his broken glasses and $80 for the former politician’s “valued purple shirt”.
During his sentencing, deputy chief magistrate Andrew Cannon said Grgich had erroneously come to believe Mr Foley had harassed a young woman, and cited the law of self defence which allows one person to protect another, which Grgich thought he was doing.
But, Grgich said to Mr Foley “that’s for harassing young girls” after struck him, leading Dr Cannon to say Grgich’s actions “suggests a degree of vigilante punishment rather than just necessary steps to protect a young woman.”
Six months after the initial assault, Mr Foley was attacked by a different person, when he was grabbed by the jaw and thrown against a toilet wall in an Adelaide restaurant in April 2011, two months after he resigned as Deputy Premier.
“It is becoming really, really hard to do this job and be subjected to that type of attack,” he told reporters following the second attack.
“People either hate Kevin Foley or they love me. There’s not much in between.”
Mr Foley retired from politics in December of 2011.
John Olsen – Motorola Affair
Liberal Premier John Olsen’s tenure came undone in 2001, when he was found to have given “misleading, inaccurate and dishonest evidence” to a judicial inquiry.
In 1994, as the then industry minister under Dean Brown, Mr Olsen had negotiated a deal with US tech company Motorola to build a software centre in Adelaide.
At the same time, the government was looking for an equipment supplier for the government radio network, and in a letter dated April 14 1994, Mr Olsen advised the company that the government intended to make Motorola the designated supplier, subject to establishing the software facility in Adelaide.
Mr Olsen told the 1998 Cramond inquiry that Motorola had not accepted the offer, a statement later found to be misleading by the Clayton inquiry in 2001.
Mr Clayton asserted that Mr Olsen had not pointed to any factual basis for his statements in 1998, and that everyone else knew the government had made a commitment to Motorola.
‘‘To suggest now,as Mr Olsen has, that Motorola did not want a Software Centre Agreementthatwaslinkedtoaradio contract, is to suggest something which is different from the evidence given to Mr Cramond,” Mr Clayton said in his report.
Mr Olsen refuted Mr Clayton’s assertion, but relented to pressure and resigned as Premier.
“If I am guilty of anything it’s about creating jobs; it’s about bringing investment into this state,” he said in his resignation speech.
The scandal proved the death knell for the Liberal Party of the early 2000s.
Mr Olsen’s replacement Rob Kerin was defeated in the 2002 election, and the Liberals wouldn’t return to government for 16 years.
Mr Olsen later became Australian Consul-General in Los Angeles and New York, president of the Liberal Party at a state and federal level, and chairman of the Adelaide Crows.
State Bank Collapse
One of the most significant political events in South Australian history, the 1991 collapse of the State Bank of South Australia led to the downfall of John Bannon and his nine-year tenure as Premier.
The implosion of the government-owned bank, which had only been formed seven years earlier lost the taxpayer $3.15bn in government-guaranteed loans and led to Mr Bannon, then also serving as Treasurer, initiating a Royal Commission.
The Royal Commission later cleared Mr Bannon of any wrongdoing, but the damage to the government was done.
Mr Bannon resigned as Premier in September 1992 and retired from politics at the 1993 election, where his party was handed the then-biggest electoral defeat in the state’s history, winning only 11 seats to the Liberals’ 37.
For more on the State Bank collapse and the reasons behind it, read this piece.