Alex Antic | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Senator forSouth Australia | |
| Assumed office 1 July 2019 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Alexander Charles Antic 1974 (age 51–52) Adelaide,South Australia, Australia |
| Party | Liberal |
| Alma mater | University of Adelaide |
| Profession | Lawyer, politician |
Alexander Charles Antic (born 1974) is an Australian politician who has been asenator forSouth Australia since 2019 representing theLiberal Party.
Antic was born inAdelaide 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 ofSerbian descent. His father arrived in Australia fromYugoslavia in 1957 and eventually became director of thoracic medicine atRoyal Adelaide Hospital.[1]
Antic holds arts and law degrees from theUniversity of Adelaide.[1] Before entering politics he was a senior associate with Tindall Gask Bentley lawyers.[2] He served on theAdelaide 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 ofAustralia Day.[5]
Antic was elected to theAustralian Senate at the2019 federal election, taking office on 1 July 2019.[6][7] In the Liberalpreselection process, he had out-polled sitting senatorLucy 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 theU.S. Department of Justice to abandon its attempts to extradite Australian publisherJulian Assange from the United Kingdom. The other members wereBarnaby Joyce,Monique Ryan,David Shoebridge,Peter Whish-Wilson andTony Zappia.[10]
In March 2024, Antic defeated Liberal moderate and Shadow Health MinisterAnne Ruston, to gain the leading position on the South Australian Liberal senate ticket for the2025 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 councillorsAnne Moran and (nowGreens MLC)Rob Simms said that they had been aligned and got on well on theAdelaide City Council, but that Antic's politics had shifted since then. Moran said that undermining Ruston was a "pointless exercise" and "foolish politics".[12]
Antic is aligned with the right faction within the South Australian Liberals,[13] and, during theMorrison government, was identified with theNational Right faction of the Liberal Party.[9][14] He has been described as a ‘far-right rebel senator’ who has ‘built up a big online following, particularly after the pandemic, by harnessing scepticism of vaccine mandates, anti-government grievance and hostility to woke culture.’[15] He appears regularly onSky News Australia[12] and has been a guest onfar-right programs, includingSteve Bannon’s podcast. He was set to be the MC for a speaking tour ofDonald Trump Jr before it was cancelled, and was a guest at a forum with disgraced formerHillsong preacher Pat Mesiti.[16][17][18] Antic’s relationships in the far right, and that he has voted against other Liberal members, had led to speculation that he may defect from the Liberals to join the One Nation Party.[19]
In his maiden speech in September 2019, Antic spoke of his support for the development of anAustralian nuclear power industry.[20] 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 ofgrid girls at theAustralian Grand Prix andClipsal 500.[21]
In 2024, Antic voted against theAustralian Government's proposed legislation to ban children under 16 from social media. He was the only Liberal Party senator who voted against it.[22]
In 2026, Antic was the only Liberal Party senator to vote against the Albanese government's hate speech legislation.[23][24]
In November 2021, Antic was one of fiveCoalition senators who voted in support ofOne Nation's COVID-19 Vaccination Status (Prevention of Discrimination) Bill 2021, against the government's position.[25][26]
In December 2021, it was alleged that Antic misled Prime MinisterScott Morrison about hisCOVID-19 vaccination status after Morrison claimed Antic had been double-vaccinated during a radio interview.[27] 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 at a Medi-hotel. However, on arrival he allegedly refused to provide his vaccination status to officials atAdelaide Airport, and then posted a video to social media claiming he had been "detained by overzealous bureaucrats", in what he called a "political stunt".[28]
In a Senate estimates hearing in November 2022, Antic accused theAustralian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) of "grooming children with [...] adult content" over aPlay School segment that featured drag queenCourtney Act reading a children's book.[29] 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".[30][31]
In late 2023, Antic proposed a bill to ban gender reassignment surgery and treatment for teenagers.[32][33][34]
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.[35] 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".[36][37] Antic's comments were used by No Smart Cities Action Group to protest theSalisbury smart cities controversy, while Antic denied involvement with the group and requested for his image to be removed.[38]
New elected members: Lord Mayor: Martin Haese; Area: Robert Simms; North: Philip Martin; Central: David Slama; South: Alex Antic; South: Priscilla Corbell
