Van Holst Pellekaan, who was elected deputy leader of the party late last year after Vickie Chapman stepped down from the role, has been ousted from the Port Augusta-based seat after independent Geoff Brock chose to contest it – winning an overwhelming majority.

Brock’s hand was forced when the Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission opted to move his Port Pirie base into Stuart.

But the case for that to happen came from a submission to the panel from the Liberal Party itself, InDaily can reveal.

That submission, signed off by state director Sascha Meldrum, made several recommendations for redrawing the electoral map, including ways to carve up seats in the far north to ensure each had a full quota of electors.

This included moving new areas into Labor-held Giles, eliminating “the awkward boundary between Giles and Stuart which currently continues down the Eyre Peninsula towards Whyalla”.

“The changes suggested for Giles will impact the electorate of Stuart, and we suggest that in order to make up the necessary voter numbers Stuart’s boundary shifts south to include the township of Port Pirie which is currently in Frome, and then continue across the State above Jamestown,” the submission says.

The commission adopted this advice – effectively costing the Deputy Premier and presumptive leader-in-waiting his seat.

Former party president Steve Murray – who lost his Hills seat of Davenport in Saturday’s bloodbath – has previously been closely involved in party submissions to the boundaries commission, but told InDaily today: “My input to the boundaries submission [in 2020] was nil.”

“I’ll let you form a view as to whether or not that was a good thing or otherwise,” he said.

“I was happy to help, and was essentially happy to provide assistance and waited by the phone.”

He said the party ended up responding to a first draft of the commission report – which would have made the Barossa seat of Schubert vulnerable to Labor – by seeking to “retrospectively make some changes which have now led to the outcome we see”.

“I predicted Brock would win,” he says – not just because of the longtime independent’s popularity in Port Pirie, but because of a looming backlash from farming communities in the state’s north to the Government’s mining legislation.

Brock created an inquiry to look into the impact on farming families.

On the flipside, van Holst Pellekaan guided the mining act through parliament.

Another Liberal insider told InDaily the submission was made “to pull [Port Pirie] out of Frome so Frome would come back to the Liberal fold” – with the party long smarting over the loss of its former safe seat to Brock after the 2009 resignation of ex-Premier Rob Kerin.

Frontbencher and government strategist John Gardner pointed out that van Holst Pellekaan made a separate submission to the EDBC in opposition to the party’s one.

He insists that “Dan was very liked in Port Pirie” but concedes there were “a huge number of electors who supported Geoff Brock”.

“I’ve been focussed on working to be part of a good government – the entrails of strategic decisions to do with campaigns and redistributions, there will be plenty of time to rake over those and that’s obviously going to be one of those issues,” he said.

With van Holst Pellekaan no chance of contesting the leadership, Gardner himself said it was too early to consider a successor for Steven Marshall, who has confirmed he will resign from the role after the crushing defeat.

“I’ve got a couple of days of counting in my seat before that question is too relevant, and so do a lot of our colleagues,” said Gardner, who is hanging onto his Morialta electorate by his fingernails.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for us to meet until all the assembly seats are resolved.”

Asked if he would be a candidate for the leadership, he said: “I’m not focussed on that question at all.”

His fellow moderate, former Police Minister Vincent Tarzia, likewise refused to rule out a run, saying only: “While the results are still coming in, South Australians sent a clear message to us. We must fully respect that.”

“As politicians we are there to best represent our State and communities,” he said.

“We need and will learn from this, and must work hard every day to rebuild.

“I especially want to thank Steven Marshall for his enormous service as Premier and Opposition Leader.”

One MP who will contest the leadership is Mackillop maverick Nick McBride, telling InDaily: “I am a true Liberal from the foundations of the party and regional areas as well as obviously representing the city of Adelaide [where his family has business interests].”

He said he came “from a very much ground-floor roots level of the party, which I think perhaps has been missing”, adding that his candidacy would “also allow the party to choose someone who’s from outside of everything that’s gone wrong this weekend”.

Former environment minister David Speirs said he was considering nominating for Liberal leader, but was mindful that he lost out on the deputy leadership ballot to van Holst Pellekaan.

“My colleagues didn’t want me as deputy leader so we have to work through that,” Speirs told ABC Radio Adelaide this morning.

He offered a frank assessment of the Liberal campaign which is widely conceded to have failed under Labor’s aggressive, focused messaging: “The campaign didn’t catch on, it didn’t have the momentum that it needed, it didn’t have the dynamism … the campaign wasn’t good enough. “