South Australia Election 2026

Which is Witch in ’26?

05/01/2026 by Australian Family Party

In Act 1 of Shakespeare’s great play Macbeth, the three witches appear before Macbeth and his friend Banquo. The witches predict that Macbeth will be king, and that one of Banquo’s sons will also be king one day.

Banquo is not convinced and responds, “If you can look into the seeds of time and say which seed will grow and which will not, speak then to me”.

Echoing Banquo, as we start another year, let us ask ‘who can look into the seeds of time’? Who can predict the future?

None of Banquo’s sons became king.

As with the witches in Macbeth, today’s economic forecasters, weather forecasters and social/population forecasters get it wrong time after time.

We are inundated with pundits’ predictions of what to expect in the year ahead.

Australia’s political pundits are predicting that in 2026 Labor will win both the South Australian and the Victorian State elections, Andrew Hastie will become Liberal leader, that house prices will continue to rise, and that there will be not just one, but several interest rate rises in 2026.

It’s been said that politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and then applying the wrong remedies.

They are similar to the guy who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.

As one wag put it, ‘In politics, if it’s honesty you want, stick to horse racing’.

So many predictions turn out to be wrong.

At the start of 2025, for example, Bitcoin was sitting at US$94,000 per coin.

Leading international analysts Standard Chartered, Bernstein Research and VanEck all predicted a rise in value in 2025 to somewhere between US$120,000 and US$250,000!

It is currently sitting at US$87,000.

Instead of rising 100 per cent or more, it dropped 7 per cent.

Other predictions have also proven to be spectacularly wrong – think ‘the internet will be a passing fad’, ‘online shopping will never take off’, ‘interest rates won’t rise for the next two years (they went up 13 times in a row), ‘Perth will be the 21st century’s first ghost metropolis’, ‘global warming is so baking the Earth that even the rain that falls won’t fill our dams and river systems’, ‘2009 may be the Arctic’s first ice-free year’ (in 2009 Arctic ice was around 5 million square kms, the same as it is today).

As someone wryly observed, ‘Ice doesn’t lie, but climate scientists do’.

Upping the ante, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stated, ‘The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived”.

You get the picture.

When it came to Covid, politicians, public sector bureaucrats, pharmaceutical company executives, the media – all in cahoots with one another – were all wrong on lockdowns, border closures, school closures, masking, and even the vaccines themselves.

While we here at the Australian Family Party are not going to get into making predictions about what may or may not happen in 2026, we can clearly see what has been unfolding globally.

As discussed in previous posts here, here and here, Australia – and South Australia in particular, given its similar climate and topography to Israel – would benefit enormously from a much closer relationship with Israel.

Israel is a nuclear and intelligence superpower with the will and ability to project power across vast distances. The Bondi massacre would not have happened had we availed ourselves of that intelligence.

Similarly, if we want to have a strong enough economy that can build a strong enough military to be able to withstand looming regional threats, then we are going to need to abandon the obsession with useless forms of energy generation, such as wind and solar.

At the Australian Family Party:

We like …
South Australia, Australia, Farming, Mining, Small Business, Free Markets, Free Speech, Property Rights, Home Ownership, School Choice, Income Splitting, Traditional Family Values, Pro-life Policies, Low Immigration, Australia’s Defence Forces, Israel.

And we dislike …
Big Government, Big Business, Big Unions, Rent Seekers, Wind Turbines, Solar Farms, Green Hydrogen, Net Zero, The Voice, Toxic Algae, Ambulance Ramping, Urban Growth Boundaries, $50bn State Govt Debt, Digital ID, High Immigration, High Crime Rates, Transgender Ideology, The UN, The WEF and The WHO.

Standing Guard
If Parliament House were a night club, they’d have a bouncer on the door only admitting those who would add value. Undesirables would be turned away!

Walk …. Get Fit …. Go Letterboxing ….
As we often say, it’s one thing to have an opinion – it’s a very different thing to support a cause.

And our primary aim now is the South Australian State election.

It’s summer, so what better time to get fit, go for a walk …. and do some letterboxing.

Can you help?

If you would like to do some letterboxing, please let us know here (choosing ‘Admin’ as the recipient).

Happy New Year everyone and thank you again for your support.

Christmas 2025

22/12/2025 by Australian Family Party

Christmas story No. 1:
A local primary school was rehearsing its annual Christmas Nativity play.

Roles for all the usual parts – Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the angels … were all allocated – except for the role of the inn keeper.

The student scheduled to play the part of the innkeeper took ill, so the role fell to Henry.

Henry was a special needs student. He was a kind boy, big for his age and had a loud voice. And he so wanted to be in the play.

He rehearsed his lines, ‘There’s no room! Be gone!’ over and over.

On the night of the play, all was going to according to plan – until, that is, the scene where Joseph and Mary knock on the inn keeper’s door.

‘Do you have any rooms?’ Joseph asked.

‘There’s no room! Be gone!’ boomed Henry.

Joseph implored the inn keeper, ‘We have been travelling all day. My wife is expecting a baby at any time now and she is very tired’.

‘There’s no room! Be gone!’ he replied.

The school had chosen its best actors to play the parts of Joseph and Mary.

They paused, dejected, their faces looking despondent. As they turned and began to slowly walk away, tears began to well in Henry’s eyes …

‘Wait! Come back!’ he shouted, ‘you can stay in my room!’

Despite roars of laughter, the audience got the true message of Christmas that year.

Christmas story No. 2:
Attending primary school in the 1930s, my father told me of the time he returned to school after the Christmas holidays one year and the teacher asked all the students in the class what each of them had received for Christmas.

One by one, and with great delight, the children described the wonderful presents they had received.

Until, that is, it came to my dad’s friend Maurice.

“And what did you get for Christmas, Maurice?”, asked the teacher.

“I didn’t receive anything Miss”, Maurice replied solemnly.

“What, nothing?”, quizzed the teacher gently. “So, what did you do over Christmas?”, she asked.

“Well Miss, my family is Jewish, and my father has a toy shop, so every Christmas Day we go down to the shop and hold hands and look up at all the empty shelves and sing ‘What A Friend We Have in Jesus’.”

Thus began my father’s admiration of the Jewish people. Their creativity, their intelligence, their courage and, of course, their sense of humour.

In our Newsletters this year we have covered everything from Bondi to Beersheba, from Bob Hawke to Bob Dylan, from Donald Horne to Donald Trump, from Tom Cruise to Tom Playford, from Voltaire to Voltaic cells – and a whole lot more in between.

With so many highs and lows this year, how should we end the year?

SA State election
The forthcoming SA State election took a dramatic turn a fortnight ago with the resignation of Liberal Leader Vincent Tarzia and the election of Ashton Hurn.

As it happens, Ashton Hurn is my local member. She is highly regarded.

With the Liberals in disarray since being turfed out of office at the last election, SA’s Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas has had a dream run.

He has enjoyed extremely high personal approval ratings since becoming Premier in March 2022 with a May 2025 YouGov poll showing the Premier’s net satisfaction rating at +70, a phenomenal number. Labor’s two-party preferred was also a whopping 67–33!

Malinauskas has dominated the news cycle throughout the year with his ‘bread and circuses’ strategy of big-name events such as golf tournaments, beach volleyball competitions, motor sport carnivals and Katy Perry-type concerts.

Over recent months, however, a number of more substantial policy areas have begun to chip away at the Premier’s seemingly impenetrable veneer.

A toxic algal bloom has blighted the South Australian coastline, and his government is copping much of the blame for not acting when the bloom was first reported.

His key 2022 election promise to ‘fix ambulance ramping’ has not been fulfilled – in fact, ambulance ramping is worse now than it was in 2022.

His government’s green hydrogen debacle is projected to cost state taxpayers nearly $500 million.

State debt is climbing towards $50bn and South Australia, once considered the nation’s home-ownership capital, is now ranked the 2^nd least affordable in Australia!

And he has introduced legislation into the South Australian parliament enshrining an Aboriginal Voice, despite the state voting overwhelmingly ‘No’ in the Voice referendum. Every electorate in South Australia voted ‘No’.

All of these add up and eventually reach a tipping point.

Which brings us back to new Opposition Leader Ashton Hurn, who now enjoys an underdog status that politicians can only dream of.

As with the Melbourne Cup, where we line up our best horses, put the heaviest weights on them and then cheer like mad when an outsider gets up and beats them, Australians – both the public and the media – love a David and Goliath, rags to riches, wooden spoon to premiership story.

It’s been said, ‘dog bites man’ isn’t a story. ‘Man bites dog’ is also no longer a story. But man dogged by bytes – now that’s the digital story of the year!

And superstar Malinauskas falling from dizzying heights and being beaten by first-termer Ashton Hurn … that would be a headline!

Ashton Hurn could be just the breakthrough the Liberal Party has needed.

Australian Family Party
With the State election just over 12 weeks away, if you are able to assist with our campaign as either a candidate, or a volunteer letterboxing, or on election day, please let us know.

Thank you.

I will close with this wonderful insight from Max Lucado:

If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.
If our greatest need had been finance, God would have sent us an economist.
If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer.
But our greatest need was forgiveness, so He sent us a Saviour.

To all our members and supporters, have a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and thank you again for your support throughout 2025.

Bounce Back Better

01/12/2025 by Australian Family Party

In a much-quoted exchange, a pollster once asked an Australian voter the following question: “Going into this election, and thinking about the average voter, what would you say is the biggest problem facing Australia today – ignorance or apathy?”

The voter replied, “I don’t know, and I don’t care”.

As we approach the South Australian State election, our key messages are crystal clear:

1. Competence & Care
Are you competent? And do you care?
Whether it’s your doctor, your mechanic or your child’s teacher, all you want to know about them is: ‘Are they competent? And do they care?’
At the Australian Family Party, we stress the importance of appointing capable people.

2. Understanding the Times
In uncertain times, the choices we make shape our future.
At the Australian Family Party, we are focused on electing strong principled leaders — people who understand the times and know what needs to be done

3. Climate Change
If we wish to have a strong enough economy that can build a strong military to be able to defend ourselves against looming regional threats, then we are going to need to abandon our obsession with useless forms of energy generation, such as wind, solar and green hydrogen.
There is no climate emergency, there is no cause for panic.

4. Israel
In today’s uncertain world, the choices we make as a State and as a nation will determine our future. At the Australian Family Party, our support of Israel is what sets us apart.
Protecting our nation, strengthening our economy, and supporting our families is the foundation of a strong society. Australia – South Australia in particular, given its climate and topography – would benefit enormously from a closer relationship with Israel.

5. Let’s Make South Australia Great Again
Many South Australians can probably remember the time when more than a dozen of Australia’s top 100 listed companies had their head offices in Adelaide – News Ltd, Fauldings, Southcorp, Elders, Normandy Mining, Adelaide Bank, Adelaide Brighton, Standard Chartered Finance to name just a few. Today there’s just one – Santos (and even Santos is on borrowed time).

At the time of Federation, South Australia led the constitutional debates and had an influential hand in shaping the new Commonwealth of Australia.

For decades after, Adelaide was Australia’s Number 3 city – bigger and more prosperous than either Brisbane or Perth.

South Australia prospered when it supported people who made things, grew things, and built things.

Over recent years, some bad ideas have found their way into the South Australian Parliament resulting in some awful legislation being passed. These include: the ‘Urban Growth Boundary’ which gave us severe housing affordability problems; ‘Transforming Health’ which led to chronic hospital ramping; ‘Renewable Energy’ which resulted in SA having the most expensive power bills in the nation; ‘Anti-Life’ legislation that has given us those grotesque abortion-up-to-birth, assisted suicide and prostitution laws.

In addition, a conga-line of rent-seekers, bootleggers and carpetbaggers looking to exploit the public purse. These crony-capitalists, who base their business models on schmoozing politicians and convincing them that their particular goods or services are essential – and that the government should either pay for them or limit competition to providing them – have essentially created another layer of taxation.

This is important as South Australians already pay enormous amounts of tax in the form of GST, stamp duties, registrations, and numerous other levies and taxes hidden in water and power costs.

When state governments privatised SA’s water and power utilities, for example, they did deals with the purchasers permitting them to increase power and water charges in exchange for a higher purchase price of the utility – just taxation by another name. Consumers simply ended up paying more for their power and water. On top of that, utilities such as SA Water, then pay ‘dividends’ to the SA state government every year – ever more taxation under a different guise. SA Water has paid over $3bn in ‘dividends’ to the SA State Government over the past ten years. That $3bn should have been used to provide much-needed water infrastructure.

Yet in spite of all the revenue and dividends collected from SA taxpayers over the past ten years – up from $12bn in 2015 to $17bn in 2025 – the State Government’s reliance on subsidies from the other States to meet its spending commitments has also risen from $7bn in 2015 to $12bn in 2025, taking the SA State Government’s total spend from $19bn in 2015 to $29bn in 2025!

Why the other States continue to put up with South Australia’s flagrant spending habits is beyond me.

Likes and Dislikes

As you would have gathered, at the Australian Family Party:

We like …
South Australia, Australia, Farming, Mining, Small Business, Free Markets, Free Speech, Property Rights, Home Ownership, School Choice, Income Splitting, Traditional Family Values, Pro-life, Low Immigration, Australia’s Defence Forces, Israel.

Standing Guard
The key role of an independent or minor party member of parliament is that of a gatekeeper – ‘standing guard at the gate’ to prevent bad laws getting into the Parliament – someone who will ‘sound the alarm’ when dodgy legislation is presented to the parliament.

If Parliament House were a night club, they’d have a bouncer on the door only admitting those who would add value! Undesirables would be turned away.

As a former Senator, I know how to stand up to destructive policies and how to stop laws that drive up costs, disrupt society and make life harder for everyday Australians.

Walk …. Get Fit …. Go Letterboxing ….!

As we often say, it’s one thing to have an opinion – it’s a very different thing to support a cause.

With summer approaching, what better time to get fit, go for a walk …. and do some letterboxing!

Can you do some letterboxing in your area? As few or as many letterboxes as you like would be just fine.

Note: Political material is not junk mail. It is defined and protected by legislation as political communication.

If you would like to do some letterboxing, please let us know here (choosing ‘Admin’ as the recipient).

Thank you for your support.