{"id":638400,"date":"2026-03-07T09:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T09:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/638400\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T09:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T09:54:17","slug":"sa-liberals-to-preference-one-nation-over-labor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/638400\/","title":{"rendered":"SA Liberals to preference One Nation over Labor"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Australia’s Liberal opposition will preference One Nation over Labor at the upcoming state election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It comes as comments by One Nation’s upper house lead candidate Cory Bernardi to the ABC on Friday about gay marriage and Muslims have been condemned.<\/p>\n

The Liberals’ preference for One Nation over Labor on how-to-vote cards comes despite Mr Bernardi deriding the two major parties as one “uni-party” not deserving of support through preferences.<\/p>\n

The deadline for filing how-to-vote passed on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms Hurn said how-to-vote cards would be coming out shortly but “I think it’s safe to say One Nation will be above the ALP”.<\/p>\n

“But as far as I can see from One Nation, they’ve made the decision not to preference the Liberals,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I don’t understand why they’re agnostic about who has the second preference, but that’s a matter for them \u2014 but One Nation will be above the ALP in our seats”.<\/p>\n

In an ABC Stateline interview aired on Friday, Mr Bernardi said he “100 per cent” stood by highly-controversial comments<\/a> he made almost 14 years ago linking gay marriage to the social acceptance of bestiality.<\/p>\n

The former Liberal senator also backed his party’s federal leader, Pauline Hanson, after she recently suggested that there were no “good” Muslims \u2014 comments for which she later partially apologised<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

How-to-vote cards and upper house preferencing are influential in deciding who is elected to parliament. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Liberal leader Ashton Hurn, asked about Mr Bernardi’s comments to the ABC, said she “didn’t see those comments because I’ve got other things to take note of”.<\/p>\n

She said the party wanted to see “as many Liberals elected as possible” and “that’s the prism through which we look at all of our preferences”.<\/p>\n

Your Say: Tell us what matters to you this SA election<\/a><\/p>\n

We want to know what issues matter most to you and what you want us to find out ahead of the March 21, SA election.<\/p>\n

Mr Bernardi revealed on Thursday that One Nation would be recommending South Australians vote for it first and then choose who they want to preference after that.<\/p>\n

The Liberals had been open about the fact that they were discussing preferences with One Nation.<\/p>\n

Some polls have put One Nation above the Liberal Party in voter support<\/a> ahead of the March 21 election, virtually assuring Mr Bernardi a place in the Legislative Council.<\/p>\n

How-to-vote cards had to be submitted to the Electoral Commission by Friday afternoon, but they have not been published.<\/p>\n

Leaders criticise comments<\/p>\n

Labor previously said it would preference One Nation last, apart from in seats contested by Liberals-turned-independents David Speirs, Fraser Ellis and Nick McBride, who have been convicted<\/a>, found guilty<\/a> and accused of crimes<\/a> respectively.<\/p>\n

Premier Peter Malinauskas said Mr Bernardi’s 2012 comments<\/a> had “not aged well” and were “contrary to basic values in this country”.<\/p>\n

“I think they were wrong then and they’re even more wrong now, and I just don’t know how you consider it any other way,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

Greens MLC Robert Simms said Mr Bernardi linking gay marriage and bestiality was “outrageous”.<\/p>\n

“The fact that he’s doubled down on the comments today is very revealing \u2014 it demonstrates that he just doesn’t get it,” Mr Simms said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Robert Simms is the only Greens upper house member and is not up for election. (ABC News: Tony Hill)<\/p>\n

In Friday’s interview, Mr Bernardi claimed that if “someone is a good Muslim then their values are incompatible with Australian values”.<\/p>\n

“I think the comments that Cory Bernardi and Pauline Hanson have made are divisive,” Mr Simms said in response.<\/p>\n

“They’re deeply hurtful, I think, to lots of people in our community, particularly Muslim South Australians.”<\/p>\n

SA Best MLC Connie Bonaros, who is up for election, said the comments went against “common decency” and made her angry.<\/p>\n

“I’m really bloody angry because I don’t know how anyone can get up and make the sorts of comments that Cory or Pauline have made throughout this campaign and get away with it,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ms Bonaros said.Muslim leader questions knowledge<\/p>\n

Ahmed Zreika from the Islamic Society of SA said Mr Bernardi’s comments were deeply disappointing and questioned how he had arrived at them.<\/p>\n

“Have you met a Muslim before? Have you sat down with the Muslim leaders? Have you met families? Have you met the hard-working Muslim community here in South Australia? Have you met the 4,000 doctors here in South Australia?” Mr Zreika said.<\/p>\n

“If he can answer these questions, OK, then we can talk about who’s not incompatible in this country, because to me, the people who are \u2026 incompatible in this country are those who promote fear, spread division, and make this type of hate language normal.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ahmed\u00a0Zreika\u00a0says people who are dividing the community are those who are incompatible with Australian values. (ABC News: Angelique Donnellan)<\/p>\n

Mr Zreika invited Mr Bernardi to visit his southern suburbs mosque for an open-minded debate.<\/p>\n

“We are happy to discuss all his concerns \u2014 if he’s got legitimate concerns,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Australia’s Liberal opposition will preference One Nation over Labor at the upcoming state election.\u00a0 It comes as…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":638401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[25403,4740,109343,5862,248245,172903,15783,50,162361,271868,260719],"class_list":["post-638400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-adelaide","tag-australia","tag-bestiality","tag-comments","tag-cory-bernardi","tag-how-to-vote","tag-liberal","tag-news","tag-one-nation","tag-preferences","tag-sa-election"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116187291335128197","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}