An ex-state Liberal leader repeatedly used cocaine with friends as a “means of escapism” to cope with the stressors of his job, a court has been told.
David Speirs, 40, appeared in Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday for sentencing submissions after pleading guilty in March to supplying drugs to two people in 2024.
The former opposition leader, who quit parliament in October 2024, sat motionless in the dock with his hands clasped in his lap for the 85-minute hearing.
Speirs has been embroiled in controversy since he quit the leadership on August 8, declaring he had “just had a gutful” of leadership speculation and did not have the energy to keep fighting.
Defence counsel William Mickan said when Speirs became opposition leader in April 2022, he experienced “acute and immense stress” and “felt extreme pressure as he struggled to keep the party on track”.
He wasn’t able to engage in his previous “adaptive coping mechanism” of exercising and was introduced to cocaine by a third party in June 2024, using it on “several” other occasions as a “means of escapism”.
“He was using cocaine to address his stressors, interacting with friends and providing them with cocaine in pursuit of that escapism,” Mr Mickan said.
Reading from the statement of facts in the case, Magistrate Brian Nitschke said: “Two friends who had used cocaine previously were aware from the invite on social media that it might be available as part of their catch-up with Mr Speirs”.
Director of Public Prosecutions Martin Hinton KC said when a Member of Parliament conducts themselves “in a manner totally inconsistent with what your public duty is, you undermine the very fabric or the very purpose of the parliament and what it stands for, and the public trust that we vest in parliamentarians”.
“There’s an element of hypocrisy in coming into this court and saying ‘don’t apply those laws to me’,” he said.
The offences occurred in the Adelaide suburb of Kingston Park on August 1 and between August 1 and 10.
Speirs had taken the drugs “in a safe environment with his friends – or, I think, his supposed friends – where the operation of the stressors on his mind were perhaps somewhat distant in terms of their immediate pressure on his mind”, Mr Hinton said.
The offending was “an aberration of character” in the lower range of seriousness and Speirs was “otherwise of exemplary character” and had made significant contributions to SA, Mr Mickan said.
“He feels like he’s betrayed his friends and family as well as the wider public. And he’s had to explain to his parents his conduct,” he said.
Speirs had voluntarily submitted to drug tests which returned negative results and his prospects for rehabilitation were good, Mr Mickan said.
He asked a fine or good behaviour bond be imposed and that no conviction be recorded. But Mr Hinton sought a conviction against Speirs and a “significant” fine.
Mr Nitschke noted he had seen media where Speirs had been the butt of “what might be said to be humour”.
“That would be humiliating for a person who has, over the years, built up a reputation and put everything into the community,” he said.
The very nature of Speirs’ position as opposition leader was the basis for extra curial punishment, Mr Mickan said.
“I say that Your Honour can take into account that there has been extensive reporting and that has destroyed his reputation,” he said.
But Mr Hinton said: “The media did not destroy this man’s reputation, he did.”
Speirs will be sentenced on April 24.
