by MONICA O’SHEA – CONSERVATIVE-leaning Senator Alex Antic has blasted his own Liberal Party after it axed SA election candidate Carston Woodhouse for describing feminists as “demonic”.
With the South Australian State election to be held on March 21, Senator Antic said the Liberals had exposed their distaste of free speech.
- He also said Islam was “poisonous and wrong” and referred to the trans agenda as “insanity”.
- How can Liberals claim to be the Party of free speech, thought, worship and association?
- It continues to sacrifice its own people for voicing their views.
In response, federal Senator Antic called the news “very disappointing”.
“How can we claim to be the Party of free speech, thought, worship and association when we continue to allow our people to be sacrificed to the swamp for voicing their views?” Senator Antic said in the Senate.
SHUT THE DOORS
“If this guy is disendorsed, or if he feels compelled to leave, we might as well shut the doors on this election with one week to go,” he said.
One Nation’s candidate for Mawson, Tyler Green, has suggested that Senator Antic should consider joining his Party.
“With principles like this, I think we all know where Mr Antic really belongs,” Mr Green wrote on X.
Antic was recently seen having a beer with Cory Bernardi, now the leader of One Nation’s South Australian division.
Mr Bernardi was previously a Liberal Party senator who left to form the short-lived Australian Conservatives Party.
His views overlap with Antic, who has crossed the floor several times to vote against the Liberal Party on matters like the under-16 social media ban, COVID-19 vaccine mandates and anti-hate speech laws in response to the Bondi terrorist mass shooting.
SA Liberal Leader Ashton Hurn, however, has maintained there was unity in the Party.
“When I became the leader, I made it extraordinarily clear that I was a leader about unity and I was a leader about focussing on the important things,” she said
“And that has been the entirety of my leadership and exactly what I’ve sought to focus on with my team for the duration of this campaign.”
Hurn was elected leader on December 8, 2025, providing her with three months to improve the Party’s position ahead of the election.
She is the third Liberal leader since the 2022 State election.
The Liberal Party holds just 13 of the 47 seats in South Australia’s lower house and is facing a daunting challenge from a surging One Nation, which is polling ahead of the Liberals in a Newspoll survey.
Pre-polling for the state election began on March 14.PC
What about free speech?
MAIN PHOTOGRAPH: Alex Antic. (courtesy YouTube/Senator Alex Antic) Images in this article are used under Fair Use guidelines.
RE-PUBLISHED: This article was originally published by The Epoch Times on March 14, 2026. Re-used with permission.
Antic is direct and clear. Imo he would be politically unwise to jump to ON. There will be much jostling for ON Senate seats. It’s preferable for Alex to stay on the Lib ticket at an electable level. ON is likely to pick up Senate seats on current polling; let’s get more non-Labor senators and use it to block the Labor Green teal axis and if the opportunity arises, force a double dissolution. I am assuming that Labor can hold the Reps with teal, etc., support and that the Coalition will be competitive. Do not bet on it just yet.