One Nation hails Alex Antic's Liberal state presidency as 'win' for SA

One Nation has welcomed Senator Alex Antic's election as state president of the Liberal party, describing it as a "win" for South Australia. In a statement, SA Leader Cory Bernardi said he looked forward to "continuing a constructive relationship with the Senator".

"As we saw at the election in March, many who used to support the Liberals have given their support to One Nation because the Liberals no longer represent the conservative values which matter to them," Mr Bernardi said. "Senator Antic's win represents an opportunity to turn the South Australian Liberals back to the right path."

Senator Antic was elected state president at the party's annual general meeting on Saturday, defeating SA upper house MP Nicola Centofanti. His nomination was opposed by moderates and some conservatives in the party, citing concerns about his record of voting against his own party and his close relationship with One Nation.

Many senior Liberals publicly backed Senator Antic's election, but former Howard government parliamentary secretary Trish Worth said he didn't have her support. "I just believe we should always be selecting the people with the most experience and loyalty in the Liberal Party and I've been on state executive and federal executive twice, I've been in the parliament and you need serious team work," she said.

Ms Worth raised concerns about some of Senator Antic's policy positions, including a recent push to re-open a loophole in the "No Jab, No Pay" policy introduced by the Turnbull government in 2015. "To be anti-vaccination is a very serious thing because you're not only endangering your own health, but you're endangering those around you," she said.

Shadow health minister Anne Ruston said it couldn't "necessarily" be said that Senator Antic was taking the party in a concerning direction. "I don't think you can necessarily say that. I mean Alex and I are both in the Liberal Party and we both want the Liberal Party to succeed but he's got a big job ahead of him over the next 12 months," she said.

Senator Antic left the meeting on Saturday without speaking to gathered media, but has previously denied he wants a merger between the SA Liberal Party and One Nation. "That has been made up. That is just outright not right," he told the 2 Worlds Collide Podcast.

Former federal Liberal Leader Alexander Downer said Senator Antic's new position would have no impact on the parliamentary party. "It's not a policy role and it's important to understand this. The state executive, like the federal executive in the Liberal Party doesn't make policy. The parliamentary party makes policy."