SA Labor wins in landslide as One Nation outpolls Liberals

South Australian leader Peter Malinauskas has called for unity and inclusive politics after a landslide Labor win and far-right One Nation’s vote overtook the state’s Liberal party.

With just over half of the votes counted, Labor was on track to win a whopping majority of at least 32 of the South Australian parliament’s 47 seats.

Malinauskas said he was “overwhelmed” and “humbled” by the resounding result, but vowed to continue to “work our guts out” during his second term.

During his speech, Malinauskas urged South Australians to “focus on what unites us, a shared love of living in a peaceful, prosperous place, a state full of hard-working people that value care and compassion”.

He urged South Australians to “be proud and patriotic in the Australian way,” stressing Australians’ version of patriotism “is a little different to our Northern Hemisphere friends”.

“We can, and we should, wave our flag with pride, knowing that Aussie patriotism sometimes means sitting with a stranger and having a cuppa or a frothy and arguing about the footy — not our faith,” he said.

“So that when we sing the national anthem with pride, we don’t forget there is a second verse, which reminds us [that] when we all combine, we can achieve anything together.

“When we work together, diversity has always been our greatest strength. There is no way that this state comes to its full potential unless we work together.”

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Cory Bernardi returns to politics

Meanwhile, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation received 21 per cent of the vote — ahead of the South Australian Liberals’ 19 per cent.

With just over half of the votes counted on Sunday morning, the Liberals were left with just four seats in the state’s lower house.

One Nation is expected to secure between one and three seats in the lower house, but party leader Pauline Hanson described MPs as “landmines” for Labor in the parliament.

The party’s South Australian leader, the former Liberal senator Cory Bernardi (below), has been elected to the state’s upper house. One or two of his One Nation colleagues could join him.

Bernardi left the Liberal Party in 2017, forming his own ‘Australian Conservatives’ party, which later merged with the previous incarnation of the anti-LGBTQIA+ Family First party in South Australia.

On the campaign trail, Bernardi was asked about his track record campaigning against same-sex marriage, including comments a decade ago likening the reform to acceptance of bestiality.

In response, Bernardi doubled down and claimed Australia has undergone a “degenerative cultural decline” due to the “influence” of the “filthy left” since Australians voted in favour of marriage equality.

SA Greens leader Robert Simms said at the time Bernardi’s spray was a “grim reminder of what Cory Bernardi and One Nation stand for: hatred and division.”

Simms, who was not up for re-election on Saturday night, congratulated Greens candidate Melanie Selwood, who the party has confirmed had secured an upper house seat.