Both major parties have members with serious accountability gaps.
Here's the record of the people asking for your vote.
Premier of South Australia
Member for Croydon
Click each issue to see the full record.
In April 2024, Malinauskas personally unveiled Walker Corporation's proposal to replace a previously-approved 3-storey retail building with a 38-storey tower — Adelaide's first skyscraper.
Walker Corporation was so confident of approval that they began laying foundations and underground car parking before the development was even approved by the State Commission Assessment Panel.
In June 2025, SCAP approved the 161-metre tower despite:
"This government actively intervened to overturn our predecessor's vision for a three-storey building."
— Peter Malinauskas
He claims the government is "hands off" while simultaneously giving the proposal "full public support."
Walker Corporation donated $50,000 to SA Liberals (2020-21). Walker Group Holdings has declared $377,000 nationally since 2010. Lang Walker was among the top 10 property developer donors nationally.
NSW banned property developer donations in 2009 due to corruption concerns. No such ban exists in South Australia.
Deputy Premier Susan Close also admitted she had not received or read it. When Opposition education spokesperson John Gardner asked in budget estimates, Close replied: "That document, I do not know how much it overlaps with the material that we have because I have not, by definition, seen it."
Senior public servants confirmed:
The universities refused to release the business case, name the consultants who compiled it, or reveal how much they were paid.
"All people want to do is talk about the process. No one wants to talk about why this is good... People point to this minutia of detail and say, 'oh there we go, there's a lack of transparency.' I just think that does a great disservice."
— Peter Malinauskas, dismissing transparency concerns as "red herring"
David Hill, CEO of Deloitte Asia-Pacific, sat on the University of Adelaide Council. On June 29, 2023, he voted to support the merger.
Hill resigned from the council on August 24, 2023. One day earlier, the joint university body endorsed Deloitte as the preferred "Integration Partner."
The contract value remains SECRET.
When the Upper House announced a merger inquiry, the Malinauskas government moved to seize control of the process — pre-empting the inquiry, defining the terms of reference, shortening the reporting deadline, and rushing the Adelaide University Act through parliament.
From her four-page resignation letter: "I can no longer play a leadership role in an organisation which has so little respect for its workforce, no capacity to reflect [and] which characterises clear and present dangers to patient safety as 'clinicians making a fuss again.'"
"Such was the tenor of the correspondence from the Attorney-General that it was very concerning as a clinician to not be given permission to speak to the coroner. It's a fundamental tenet of the coronial process that we have clinicians who are able to freely give evidence."
— Dr Megan Brooks, parliamentary testimony (July 2025)
Dr Brooks told MPs that the Coroner's recommendations were made "in ignorance of what the real issues were" due to the interference with her evidence.
In 2022, Malinauskas promised $2.3 billion would fix ramping. Under his government:
ICAC Commissioner Ann Vanstone called the changes "decimating."
In August 2024, ICAC published "The Room Where It Happens: Lobbying and Influence in South Australia."
The report found SA has the weakest lobbying transparency of any Australian state. SA is the only state that:
The report made 31 recommendations. As of January 2026 — 16 months later — virtually none have been implemented. Malinauskas announced a "review" instead of acting.
Rex Patrick fought an 18-month FOI battle to obtain Malinauskas's ministerial diary. The government fought to keep it secret.
After the government ignored her recommendations, Commissioner Ann Vanstone resigned in July 2024.
Months after that lunch, SA-Best introduced two gambling harm reduction bills in November 2024:
Both major parties voted together to defeat them. The vote was 11-3. Only the Greens and SA-Best voted in favour.
Malinauskas promised to ban political donations before the 2022 election. He called it "the most important reform to improve public confidence in institutions."
Four years later, the ban has not been implemented. The donations kept flowing.
"I will never forget the night she finished reading the book and she put it down on her lap and she turned to me and said, 'You better do something about this!'"
— Peter Malinauskas
To ban teens, every Australian must verify their identity. Anonymous online speech is ending.
The irony: The same Premier who refuses to implement ICAC's 31 recommendations for lobbying transparency has built infrastructure to identify every citizen online. Politicians stay anonymous in their donor meetings while citizens lose anonymity.
In January 2026, ecologist Faith Coleman told Parliament that staff from three separate agencies across two portfolios were directed not to investigate the algal bloom's cause until after the election.
"Deeply disturbing" — government accused of prioritising marketing spin over scientific investigation.
— Robert Simms, Greens MLC
Senior public servants have denied the allegations. But the testimony is on parliamentary record, and the pattern matches: silence the experts, control the narrative, get through the election.
Minister Katrine Hildyard faced a censure motion from the Opposition, Greens, One Nation, AND SA-Best — a rare cross-party rebuke. Malinauskas defended her, saying she was "doing her best under extremely difficult circumstances."
Parliament disagreed.
Connor Holmes, a property consulting firm, was hired by Planning SA to produce the Growth Investigations Report identifying areas suitable for housing.
At the same time, Connor Holmes was acting as a consultant for a consortium of five developers and actively lobbying Minister Holloway to support the Mount Barker development on their clients' behalf.
FOI documents released in February 2012 revealed that Minister Holloway had ignored Planning SA's request not to make any commitments to developers before the state's 30-year plan was completed.
"Both before and during the procurement, as well as at the time of being awarded the consultancy, Connor Holmes were making concerted representations to the Minister on behalf of five developers, the Mount Barker Consortium, to expand and rezone Mount Barker."
— State Ombudsman Richard Bingham, March 2013
"The Government should not have approved the rezoning of land without the government and council being able to support that community with infrastructure."
— Planning Minister John Rau (Holloway's successor)
Only 25% of the 1,300 hectares has been developed, yet infrastructure still can't keep up:
"If we're only 25 per cent of the way to developing those new areas, you can imagine if it's troublesome now by the time we increase another 75 per cent, it's going to be pretty bad."
— Mount Barker Mayor David Leach, 2025
Despite this being called SA's worst planning failure, the current government is repeating the same model at Murray Bridge — large-scale rezoning driven by developers. The developers themselves acknowledged the comparison, saying their project "won't repeat Mount Barker mistakes."
The lesson of Mount Barker: when governments rezone land for developers without infrastructure commitments, communities pay the price for decades.
Labor's $232.7 million Public Housing Improvement Program did deliver 1,090 homes. It also prevented the sale of 580 Trust homes previously proposed by the Marshall government. These are real actions. But they are not scaled to the problem.
While claiming to fix the housing crisis, Malinauskas simultaneously:
1,090 homes on a 16,000+ waiting list is a 7% dent in the backlog — before accounting for new applicants joining the list each year. A government that spent $444.5 million on a university merger without reading the business case chose to spend $232 million on housing. The priorities are clear.
Minister for Infrastructure & Transport, Energy & Mining
Member for West Torrens
Click each issue to see the full record.
Koutsantonis was Treasurer during the deal. When Renewal SA executives raised concerns about the process, Koutsantonis reportedly swore at public servants who questioned it.
"There was maladministration in public administration in relation to the processes and procedures... in connection with the proposed disposal of land at Gillman."
— ICAC Commissioner Bruce Lander
The land at Gillman was prime industrial waterfront property. Selling it without a competitive tender meant taxpayers potentially lost tens of millions of dollars in value. The ICAC investigation itself cost significant public resources.
Despite this record, Malinauskas appointed Koutsantonis as the minister responsible for road safety policy in South Australia. When questioned, the government dismissed it as old news.
As Road Safety Minister, Koutsantonis oversees campaigns telling South Australians to slow down, put their phones away, and obey traffic signals — all things he has repeatedly failed to do himself.
South Australia's road toll remains a serious concern, with over 100 deaths annually in recent years.
The road maintenance contracting model was meant to improve efficiency through competition. Instead, it has led to concentration in one company.
South Australian roads continue to deteriorate. Pothole complaints have surged. The Auditor-General has questioned whether the state is getting value for money from its road maintenance contracts.
This matters because DIT manages billions of dollars in road, rail, and infrastructure contracts. Without transparency, there is no way to verify that taxpayers are getting value for money or that contracts are being awarded fairly.
Opposition Leader
Member for Schubert
Click each issue to see the full record.
Ramping is the number one issue in South Australian politics. Labor promised to fix it and failed. The Liberals' response has been to criticise Labor without offering their own plan.
When pressed repeatedly by ABC's David Bevan, Hurn defaulted to:
Not a single dollar figure, timeline, or specific measure was offered.
South Australians deserve to know what they're voting for, not just what they're voting against. An opposition that can't articulate its plans on the state's biggest issue raises serious questions about its readiness to govern.
As of February 2026 — weeks before the election — the Liberal health policy remains vague.
Shadow Treasurer Ben Hood called Labor's costings "made up" — while the Liberal Party issued three different cost estimates for their own centrepiece policy. The stamp duty commitment alone is projected to be the most expensive election promise in SA history.
The ACT is the only Australian jurisdiction phasing out stamp duty — their transition plan is 20+ years long with a gradual shift to land tax. The Liberal plan promises the same result without any of the planning. The $2.3B annual cost equals two years of the entire SAPOL budget or six times the combined annual budget of CFS, MFS, SAFECOM and SES.
This is not a policy. It is a deferral. A government that cannot tell you what taxes it will set before the election is asking for a blank cheque.
"We will establish a tax reform commission."
— Ashton Hurn, SA Liberal campaign launch, 2026
Every other policy promise can be held against the government at the next election. A tax commission that decides after you vote cannot be. If rates go up, the commission recommended it. If the promise is abandoned, the commission's terms didn't allow it. It is accountability-proofed by design.
Tom Koutsantonis (Labor) put it directly: "How will they pay for this? Which government services will they cut? What taxes will they increase?" The Liberals' answer is: we'll form a commission to decide later.
The Liberals promised before the 1997 election that they would not privatise ETSA. After winning, they did it anyway. The sale price was approximately $3.5 billion — a figure many argued was well below the long-term value of the asset.
Every electricity bill South Australians pay includes network charges going to the private owners of what was once a public asset. The privatisation fundamentally changed SA's energy landscape and remains a key reason the state has among the highest power costs nationally.
A party in crisis is unlikely to form an effective government. Internal division consumes energy that should be spent on policy development. The Liberals' inability to hold a single term, combined with the Speirs scandal, raises questions about the party's judgement and stability.
Former Opposition Leader (resigned)
Former Member for Black
"He preyed upon me as a recovering drug addict."
— One of Speirs' victims, in a statement to police
Supplying cocaine is a serious criminal offence in South Australia, carrying a maximum penalty of $50,000 or 10 years imprisonment. The $9,000 fine and no recorded conviction was widely seen as lenient.
The fact that this occurred while Speirs was the leader of a major political party raises fundamental questions about the judgement, vetting, and culture within the SA Liberal Party.
| Member | Issue | The Promise | The Reality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malinauskas | Festival Plaza | "Hands off" the decision | Personally unveiled and endorsed Walker Corp's tower |
| Malinauskas | Uni Merger | "Thorough examination" | Committed $444.5M without reading business case |
| Malinauskas | Ramping | $2.3B would fix it | Ramping doubled. Doctor silenced. 37+ deaths. |
| Malinauskas | ICAC | — | Voted to gut it. Ignored 31 recommendations. |
| Malinauskas | Pokies | Ban donations | Took $695K+. Killed reform 11-3. |
| Malinauskas | Algal Bloom | "Clearly communicated" | Staff told not to investigate until after election |
| Koutsantonis | Gillman | Proper process | 400ha sold without tender. ICAC: maladministration. |
| Koutsantonis | Traffic | Road Safety Minister | 58 offences. Lost licence. Appointed to oversee road safety. |
| Koutsantonis | Contracts | "Open and transparent" | <10% of contracts published. Disputed Auditor-General. |
| Malinauskas | 2026: Housing | "First net increase in public housing in a generation" | 1,090 homes on a 16,000+ waiting list. Crisis deepened on his watch. |
| Malinauskas | 2026: Accountability | "Stable, transparent government" | Gutted ICAC. Silenced doctor. Festival Plaza without tender. <10% contracts disclosed. |
| Member | Issue | The Promise | The Reality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hurn | Ramping | "We'll fix it" | Asked 9 times for a plan. No answer. |
| Hurn | Stamp Duty | Abolish it — full abolition by 2041 | Party's own figures: $1.6B–$2.3B/yr. No replacement plan. Can't agree on their own cost. |
| Hurn | Tax Commission | "We'll reform the tax system" | Will decide tax rates after you vote. A blank cheque with no accountability. |
| Hurn | $4.9B Platform | Calls Labor fiscally irresponsible | Liberal platform: $4.867B in promises vs Labor's $1.043B. No costings plan. |
| Hurn | ETSA | Better economic managers | Defends privatisation that gave SA highest power prices. |
| Speirs | Cocaine | Alternative Premier | Supplied cocaine while Opposition Leader. Fined $9,000. |
Both major parties have accountability gaps. Find alternatives in your district.