Xenophon fails as Liberals take office in SA

IT was out with the old and in with the new in South Australia yesterday, as incoming premier Steven Marshall outlined his future plans and outgoing premier Jay Weatherill stepped down after seven years as Labor leader.

On his first day in the job, Mr Marshall said the Liberals would deliver every pledge announced during the campaign and vowed to get the state “back on track”.

“We’re going to lower people’s taxes, we’re going to lower their cost of living and we’re going to create more jobs in this state,” he said.

He said the Liberals’ early decision to rule out doing a deal with Nick Xenophon had paid off.

“The party room backed my position that we wouldn’t do a deal and I think that’s one of the turning points in the campaign,” he said.

“I’m particularly delighted that the people of South Australia backed us into a majority government because I genuinely believe that is exactly what we need.”

Mr Marshall and Mr Weatherill each met with Governor Hieu Van Le yesterday to inform him of the election result.

SA-BEST leader Nick Xenophon failed spectacularly to win lower house seats, an outcome he blamed on stretching the party’s resources too thin and the “dirty” campaign waged against it.

He plans to still have a role in politics in some way but has ruled out asking one of his two successful upper house candidates to stand down to allow him to take their seat.

He’s also ruled out an immediate return to federal politics and says he won’t take a job as a paid staffer.