‘Game, set and match’: Firebrand conservative Alex Antic’s win leaves SA Liberals facing a new reality

All eyes are now watching for the next move in the South Australian Liberal Party after the weekend election of Senator Alex Antic to the presidency.

It came as no shock to political observers as firebrand conservative Antic was the red-hot favourite over last-minute nominee MLC Nicola Centofanti.

Antic’s troops had counted the numbers and knew they would have a comfortable victory over the “symbolic” challenger who had been urged to nominate as a peace offering to the party’s moderates and any anti-Antic conservatives.

The final tally was 119-73 which meant game, set and match for Antic with no sense that he’d just scraped over the line.

But it doesn’t mean that opponents aren’t lighting a new fire under the Liberals’ belly.

The Labor Party was fiercely out of the blocks criticising Antic, parliamentary leader Ashton Hurn and others.

Attack dog Health Minister Blair Boyer says it demonstrates that the hard right takeover of the SA Liberal Party is now complete.

Boyer accuses her of now being a marionette, with the strings controlled by Antic himself.

Having known Hurn for more than a decade since her media advisory days, I consider that almost an insult to her.

She runs her own race but now needs to tread a fine line between speaking her mind and keeping a lid on any new internal tensions.

She clearly doesn’t share Antic’s anti-vaccination or bird flu conspiracy views but says he has every right, as a Liberal, to express them.

Strangely Antic avoided the media like a dose of the flu after his successful election.

As a rule, he avoids journalists, some of whom he’s accused of peddling fake news.

One of his last public appearances was six months ago as a panellist on the 7NEWS SA election coverage.