analysis
Why Ashton Hurn may, or may not, succeed as SA Liberal leader
Premier Peter Malinauskas and Opposition leader Ashton Hurn have differences on policy but similarities in messaging. (ABC News: Dean Faulkner/ Che Chorley)
"Keen netballer" vs "pretty average footballer".
West Coast fan vs Port Adelaide tragic.
Working mum vs father-of-four.
Ashton Hurn vs Peter Malinauskas.
There was absolutely no mistaking the brand projected by Ms Hurn on her first day as South Australian Liberal leader.
Her inaugural press conference on Monday was teeming with references to sport and family, accompanied by vision of her walking into parliament with her young son Rupert.
Ms Hurn outside parliament with her young son before being elected Liberal leader on Monday morning. (ABC News: Will Hunter)
"I'm a mum, I'm a daughter of a farmer, I'm a public school educated person, first in my family to go to uni, love my sport and love to roll up my sleeves to get things done," she said in her opening remarks.
It's a popular approach intended to appeal to the public by emphasising the leader is one of them.
Like Mr Malinauskas's pitch for power four years ago.
"I'm a husband, a father of three, a weekend gardener, a pretty average footy player and leader of the South Australian Labor Party," he said in a campaign ad overlaid with pictures of his family life.
Mr Malinauskas also described himself as a family man ahead of the 2022 election. (Supplied: Peter Malinauskas/ South Australian Labor)
A scarce commodity
The "pretty average footy player" moniker proved a winner for Labor, and it remains in Mr Malinauskas's social media bio today (updated to "father of four" and "Premier of South Australia" for good measure).
In a carefully crafted campaign ahead of the 2022 election, Mr Malinauskas portrayed himself as a "pretty average footy player", a description he still uses in his social media bios. (Supplied: Peter Malinauskas/ South Australian Labor)
Perhaps Ms Hurn's "keen netballer" pitch will prove just as effective. She had a state league career after all.
But name recognition is a scarce — and valuable — commodity in state politics.
A poll of 1,000 SA voters published over the weekend found 49 per cent had "never heard of" Ashton Hurn.
Ms Hurn, pictured here in April 2023 celebrating a new court in her Barossa Valley electorate, is a former South Australian Sport Institute netballer. (Supplied: Ashton Hurn)
The poll — taken between November 24 and December 5 by new polling outfit Fox and Hedgehog — only represents a point in time, and Ms Hurn will have a bigger platform in the run up to the election.
But Labor put four years of work into building their leader's brand before the last election, investing in everything from a statewide "Labor listens" tour to "Meet Pete" Q&As on social media.
Ms Hurn has just 100 days.
As one Labor source told the ABC: "You need to build the foundation, and that takes time".
"It's far easier to go from 50 to100 than 0 to 100," they said.
New Liberal confidence
Labor sources are playing down the political significance of Ms Hurn's ascent to the leadership, pointing to her name recognition problems and arguing the government's campaign message is not likely to change.
But there is no doubt the Liberal Party feels much better about its electoral prospects than it did two weeks ago.
Ashton Hurn was unanimously chosen by her colleagues at a party room meeting on Monday. (ABC News: Che Chorley)
Liberals privately say that Ms Hurn — a former media adviser to Liberal premier Steven Marshall — is a better public communicator than her predecessor Vincent Tarzia, who resigned the leadership on Friday.
"There were a lot of Liberals who breathed a deep sigh of relief," one senior Liberal said of the events over the weekend.
Several party members have pointed the ABC to Ms Hurn's unequivocal commitment on Monday to repeal SA's Indigenous Voice to Parliament as an example of the "clarity" she brings to the role.
A week earlier, Mr Tarzia and deputy Liberal leader Josh Teague gave separate radio interviews where they appeared to have different positions on the Voice.
"I think it's safe to say there has been some confusion about our position," Ms Hurn admitted on ABC Radio Adelaide on Tuesday.
A difficult map
While her Voice pledge might appeal to conservatives in the country, the Liberals are hoping Ms Hurn's status as a young professional mum will resonate in the inner-suburbs.
That would help protect vulnerable seats like Unley, Morialta and Colton which all have retiring Liberal incumbents and are being targeted by Labor's campaign machine.
The party is also more confident that Mr Tarzia can hold onto his north-eastern seat of Hartley now that he is free from the demands of leadership.
Mr Tarzia is now said to be doing three to four events a day in Hartley.
"Stepping back from the leadership has allowed me to focus on what matters most — my young family and serving Hartley residents," he told the ABC.
He also mentioned that he's about to qualify for a blue belt in jiu-jitsu with the extra time on his hands — helpful for an MP facing a ground battle to hold his seat.
Vincent Tarzia on the campaign trail for the seat of Hartley in 2014. (Facebook)
The more optimistic Liberals believe Ms Hurn might even give them a fighting chance in Dunstan — Labor's most marginal seat in the inner-eastern suburbs.
Ms Hurn kicked off her campaign in the seat on Monday and spent time there as Steven Marshall's adviser.
The Liberal reality
But no amount of Liberal Party optimism can sugar-coat that Ms Hurn has just taken on what could be the toughest job in Australian politics right now.
A job she insisted last week she did not want.
"This is something that of course I didn't look for but it's something that my colleagues have encouraged me to do," she said on Monday.
"And I think real leaders step up when their team is encouraging them to do so."
Three polls this year have Labor up by more than 60 to 40 per cent on two party preferred, forecasting a Liberal doomsday scenario where they are wiped out of metropolitan Adelaide like their federal counterparts.
Ms Hurn says her party has a "mountain to climb" ahead of the next state election. (ABC News: Che Chorley)
Ms Hurn will face a campaign from Labor that attempts to portray her party as "shambolic" — one that has changed leaders four times in four years.
By comparison, Labor has had four leaders in 31 years.
And not only does Ms Hurn have just 100 days to campaign, she will be trying to reach voters just as they tune out over Christmas.
"There's no doubt that we've got a hell of a mountain to climb," she said on Monday.
Her March election battle will, in other words, be both uphill and hard-fought, and the political goalposts — be they football's big sticks or netball's raised hoops — are already on the horizon.