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Alex Antic

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Senator
Alex Antic
Antic in 2021
Senator for South Australia
Incumbent
Assumed office
1 July 2019
President of the
South Australian Liberal Party
Incumbent
Assumed office
19 September 2026
Preceded byLeah Blyth
Vice-President of the
South Australian Liberal Party
In office
2016–2019
Personal details
BornAlexander Charles Antic
1974 (age 51–52)
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
PartyLiberal
EducationUniversity of Adelaide
ProfessionLawyer, politician

Alexander Charles Antic (born 1974) is an Australian politician who has been a senator for South Australia since 2019 representing the Liberal Party. He is aligned with the right faction of the party in SA, and was elected president of the state branch in September 2026. He is a vaccine sceptic and many of his political views are aligned with the far right.

Early life and education

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Alexander Charles Antic[citation needed] was born in Adelaide in 1974, the son of Vicki Anderson and Ratomir "Ral" Antic. In his maiden speech to parliament he stated his belief that he was the first Australian senator of Serbian descent. His father arrived in Australia from Yugoslavia in 1957 and eventually became director of thoracic medicine at Royal Adelaide Hospital.[1] Antic's only sibling was a brother, Nick, who died from a brain tumour in 2016.[1]

Antic attended Burnside Primary School and Pembroke School in Adelaide's eastern suburbs.[1]

He earned arts and law degrees from the University of Adelaide.[1]

Career

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Law

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Before entering politics Antic was a senior associate with Tindall Gask Bentley lawyers.[2]

Adelaide City Council

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He served on the Adelaide City Council from 2014 to 2018, representing the south ward.[3] In that role, he argued that local governments must concentrate on the delivery of services, rather than "being used as a vehicle for identity politics".[4] He also used his position on the council to press for the preservation of Australia Day.[5]

Federal Parliament

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Antic was elected to the Australian Senate at the 2019 federal election, taking office on 1 July 2019.[6][7] In the Liberal preselection process, he had out-polled sitting senator Lucy Gichuhi, a fellow member of the party's conservative faction.[8][9]

In September 2023, Antic joined a cross-party delegation of Australian MPs to Washington, D.C., to lobby the U.S. Department of Justice to abandon its attempts to extradite Australian publisher Julian Assange from the United Kingdom. The other members were Barnaby Joyce, Monique Ryan, David Shoebridge, Peter Whish-Wilson, and Tony Zappia.[10]

In March 2024, Antic defeated Liberal moderate and Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston, to gain the leading position on the South Australian Liberal senate ticket for the 2025 Australian federal election. When asked about taking the position from a woman, given the Liberals' low number of women in parliament, Antic responded that “the ‘gender card’ is nothing but a grievance narrative”.[11] Antic's success in securing the top spot on the ticket led to criticism from other South Australian Liberals.[11][12] Former fellow councillors Anne Moran and (now Greens MLC) Rob Simms said that they had been aligned and got on well on the Adelaide City Council, but that Antic's politics had shifted to the right since then.[12]

President, SA Liberals

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Antic has recruited evangelical and Pentecostal Christians into the party in South Australia.[13] On 19 September 2026, Antic was elected president of the South Australian branch of the Liberal Party, winning 119 votes to 73, over the only other candidate, the moderate Nicola Centofanti.[14] The prospect of Antic as president led to speculation that the federal party might forcibly take over the state branch because of concerns over the senator's close relationship with populist rightOne Nation.[13] RedBridge poll director and former Liberal Party strategist Tony Barry[15] previously called Antic a "vote-losing machine" for the party.[13]

Political views

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Antic is aligned with the right faction within the South Australian Liberals,[16] and, during the Morrison government, was identified with the National Right faction of the Liberal Party.[9][17]

In his maiden speech in September 2019, Antic spoke of his support for the development of an Australian nuclear power industry.[18] He also lambasted "the tyranny of political correctness", and criticised the push towards developing renewable sources of energy.[12] In November 2019, he opposed moves to decriminalise sex work in South Australia, stating that sex workers were being exploited and that it was hypocritical to support decriminalisation while opposing the use of grid girls at the Australian Grand Prix and Clipsal 500.[19]

His views have shifted over time to far right, building an online following by courting vaccine sceptics during the COVID-19 pandemic and railing against "woke" culture.[20] In the early 2020s he appeared regularly on Sky News Australia[12] and was a guest on far-right programs, including Steve Bannon’s podcast. He was set to be the MC for a speaking tour of Donald Trump Jr before it was cancelled, and was a guest at a forum with disgraced former Hillsong preacher Pat Mesiti.[21][22][23]

In 2024, Antic voted against the Australian Government's proposed legislation to ban children under 16 from social media. He was the only Liberal Party senator who voted against it.[24]

In 2026, Antic was the only Liberal Party senator to vote against the Albanese government's hate speech legislation.[25][26]

Anti-vaccination position

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In November 2021, Antic was one of five Coalition senators who voted in support of One Nation's COVID-19 Vaccination Status (Prevention of Discrimination) Bill 2021, against the government's position.[27][28]

In December 2021, it was alleged that Antic misled Prime Minister Scott Morrison about his COVID-19 vaccination status after Morrison claimed Antic had been double-vaccinated during a radio interview.[29] Antic returned to Adelaide from Canberra having obtained a travel exemption for unvaccinated persons, the exemption having only been granted on appeal, on the condition he spent 14 days in quarantine. However, on arrival he allegedly refused to provide his vaccination status to officials at Adelaide Airport, and then posted a video to social media claiming he had been "detained by overzealous bureaucrats", in what he called a "political stunt".[30]

In June 2026 Antic mocked bird flu, which had just been discovered for the first time in Australia, as "spin from pharmaceutical companies" aimed at coercing people into getting flu vaccination shots that winter.[31]

LGBT

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In a Senate estimates hearing in November 2022, Antic accused the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) of "grooming children with [...] adult content" over a Play School segment that featured drag queen Courtney Act reading a children's book.[32] In response, Act stated that "to use terms of abuse when no abuse is actually happening, really takes away from the occasions when it is happening [...] I'm on television, reading a children’s book, there was nothing untoward about it. It was really quite a shocking thing to be accused of".[33][34]

In late 2023, Antic proposed a bill to ban gender reassignment surgery and treatment for teenagers.[35][36][37]

Digital technology and smart cities

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In June 2022, Antic raised broad concerns about Australia's digital future being a surveillance and privacy risk, including that sensitive biometric data could be a target for hackers and malicious foreign agents.[38]  In December 2022, Antic released a video about the smart cities programs as a "rise of the digital surveillance state" with concerns that is represented a dystopian future and claiming "your city is tracking you".[39][40] Antic's comments were used by No Smart Cities Action Group to protest the Salisbury smart cities controversy, while Antic denied involvement with the group and requested for his image to be removed.[41]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 Antic, Alex (17 September 2019). "First speech". Hansard. Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  2. ↑ "Alex Antic Senior Associate". Tindall Gask Bentley. Archived from the original on 8 April 2019. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  3. ↑ "New Council Investiture Ceremony". City of Adelaide. 18 November 2014. New elected members: Lord Mayor: Martin Haese; Area: Robert Simms; North: Philip Martin; Central: David Slama; South: Alex Antic; South: Priscilla Corbell
  4. ↑ "Councillor Wants City Council To Stick To Day Job". FiveAA. 7 August 2017. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
  5. ↑ "Local govt should stay out of debate I started, says councillor". InDaily. 7 August 2017. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
  6. ↑ "Qualification Checklist" (PDF). Australian Electoral Commission. 2019.
  7. ↑ "First preferences by Senate group: South Australia". AEC Tally Room. Australian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  8. ↑ "Right-wing Senate wannabe Alex Antic takes aim at his own". The Weekend Australian. 30 June 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  9. 1 2 Massola, James (20 March 2021). "Who's who in the Liberals' left, right and centre factions?". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  10. ↑ Cannane, Steve (27 June 2024). "Inside the closed-door meeting in Washington DC to free WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  11. 1 2 Massola, James (18 March 2024). "Liberal fury at the antics of Alex, the anti-woke senator". The Age. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Shepherd, Tory (19 March 2024). "Alex Antic: Liberal who rolled female frontbencher described as nice guy turned 'Trumpian' by colleagues". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  13. 1 2 3 Shepherd, Tory (22 September 2026). "Alex Antic's rise in SA Liberals has coincided with a collapse in the party's vote. Is there further to fall?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 23 September 2026. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  14. ↑ "Senator Alex Antic wins SA Liberal presidency, defeating Nicola Centofanti". ABC News (Australia). 19 September 2026.
  15. ↑ Grattan, Michelle (10 February 2026), Politics with Michelle Grattan: Tony Barry on why a new Liberal leader isn't a quick fix, The Conversation, doi:10.64628/aa.xpfawqtpj
  16. ↑ "The factional feud prompting claims the SA Liberals are 'at war with themselves'". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 15 July 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  17. ↑ Massola, James (8 April 2023). "How Morrison's shattering defeat gave Dutton a seismic shift in factional power". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  18. ↑ Coughlan, Matt (17 September 2019). "New Lib senator joins nuclear power push". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  19. ↑ "Grid girls used in sex-work debate". Adelaide Now. 13 November 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  20. ↑ Antic and Bernardi flirt with One Nation The Age ,2 February 2026.
  21. ↑ Karp, Paul (7 December 2021). "Coalition members George Christensen and Alex Antic appear on far-right US chat shows". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  22. ↑ Polychronis, Gabriel (16 February 2024). "Rebel Senator Alex Antic in anti-vax limelight with ex-Hillsong pastor, RFK Jr". The Advertiser.
  23. ↑ "Trump Jr cancels Australian tour, blaming late visa". Yass Tribune. 5 July 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  24. ↑ Crowley, Tom (27 November 2024). "Senate passes social media ban for under 16s among 32 bills". ABC News. Archived from the original on 26 September 2026. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  25. ↑ McIlroy, Tom; Jervis-Bardy, Dan (20 January 2026). "Labor's hate speech laws pass Senate in late-night vote as Nationals split from Liberals to oppose bill". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  26. ↑ Crowley, Tom; Armstrong, Clare (20 January 2026). "Labor's hate laws pass despite a divided Coalition". ABC News. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  27. ↑ "COVID-19 Vaccination Status (Prevention of Discrimination) Bill 2021". www.legislation.gov.au.
  28. ↑ Maiden, Samantha (22 November 2021). "Scott Morrison faces Senate revolt over Pauline Hanson bill". news.com.au. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
  29. ↑ Karp, Paul (3 December 2021). "Scott Morrison denies misleading Australians on Liberal senator Alex Antic's vaccination status". the Guardian. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
  30. ↑ Sulda, Dixie; Bermingham, Kathryn; Starick, Paul (3 December 2021). "Senator Alex Antic won't say if he's been vaccinated and doesn't know why he was taken to hotel quarantine". The Advertiser.
  31. ↑ Kelsall, Thomas (25 June 2026). "Alex Antic's 'dangerous' comments on vaccinations after bird flu detection condemned". ABC News. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  32. ↑ Meade, Amanda (8 November 2022). "Liberal senator's ABC 'grooming' comments denounced as 'deeply offensive'". Guardian Australia. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  33. ↑ Thomas, Shibu (21 November 2022). "Courtney Act hits back at liberal senator Alex Antic's offensive slur". Star Observer. SSO Media. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
  34. ↑ Meade, Amanda (8 November 2022). "Liberal senator's ABC 'grooming' comments denounced as 'deeply offensive'". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  35. ↑ "Lib senator's bill to ban child gender therapy". The Australian.
  36. ↑ "Calls to ban puberty blockers and gender reassignment surgery for under 18 years old". Sky News. 13 August 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
  37. ↑ "Senator Alex Antic calls for ban on all medical treatment of trans youth". Out in Perth. 17 October 2023. Archived from the original on 19 October 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
  38. ↑ Sky News Australia (21 June 2022). Australia's 'digital future' at risk of being 'one of surveillance'. Retrieved 28 September 2025 – via YouTube.
  39. ↑ Senator Alex Antic (11 December 2022). 🚨🚨 Your 'SMART' city is tracking you!. Retrieved 28 September 2025 – via YouTube.
  40. ↑ Antic, Alex. "Your city is tracking you".
  41. ↑ Shepherd, Tory (25 January 2023). "Protesters against South Australian council's 'Big Brother' tech invoke Liberal Alex Antic's video". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 September 2025.
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