South Australia’s 2026 election has drawn 436 candidates across both chambers, the largest field in the state’s history. Among them, Kanwaldeep Singh and Deepa Mathew are each seeking a seat in the Legislative Council, representing different parties with different platforms directed at the full breadth of the electorate. Their presence points to a steady change in Australian politics, where candidates from migrant backgrounds are increasingly entering mainstream contests on professional and civic credentials rather than representing any single community.
Kanwaldeep Singh, who goes by KD, arrived in Australia from India in 2008. According to his campaign profile, he has since built a financial advisory firm in Adelaide, expanded into regional tourism by restoring a heritage lodge in the Clare Valley, and qualified as a Justice of the Peace. He has been a long-standing Rotary Club member and founded MILAAP, a multicultural mentoring programme he describes as the Multicultural Initiative of Linking All Australian People. He is running at position four on the Liberal Party’s Legislative Council ticket, elevated from position five after a candidate withdrawal ahead of nominations closing.
His campaign has focused on cost-of-living pressures, housing affordability, small business support, energy costs, and community safety. These are the same issues dominating the campaign across all parties. Singh has positioned himself as someone whose professional background gives him a practical lens on them. As a financial planner who has spent more than a decade working with first home buyers and small business owners, the ground he is covering is territory he says he knows from the inside.
The Legislative Council elects 11 members this cycle, with each seat requiring approximately 8.33 per cent of the statewide vote. With the Liberal primary vote tracking at around 15 to 19 per cent in recent polling, the party is expected to return one to two upper house members, with positions higher on the ticket the more likely beneficiaries. For position four to be reached, the Liberals would need a substantially stronger upper house vote than current polling suggests. If elected, Singh would be the first Indian-born person to serve in the South Australian Legislative Council.
The second candidate, Deepa Mathew, is running as the lead candidate on Family First’s Legislative Council ticket. Mathew migrated from India to Adelaide roughly 20 years ago and built a career in banking and finance before establishing her own small business. Her campaign has centred on cost of living, housing affordability, and support for families, themes that align with Family First’s broader platform.
Her candidacy drew national attention in February after Premier Peter Malinauskas challenged voters considering One Nation to think about the consequences of cutting immigration. In a speech to business leaders in Adelaide, Malinauskas argued that South Australia needed migrants to fill aged care and construction roles alongside major defence and mining projects. “Who’s going to feed you and bathe you and wipe your bum when you’re 90?” he asked, directing his remarks at those tempted by One Nation’s anti-immigration platform. He later said he did not regret the remarks “one iota.”
Mathew condemned the comments as demeaning. “I didn’t come here to wipe bums. I came here to be Australian,” she said in a statement, adding: “I came to South Australia with my husband and young family seeking opportunity, freedom and a better future. Like thousands of other migrants, I have worked hard, contributed to the economy, paid taxes, created jobs and volunteered in my community.” She said the remarks reduced migrants to “a political prop” and called for “an immigration program that is fair, orderly and sustainable — and a political culture that treats migrants with dignity.” A government spokesperson said it was “extremely disappointing” to see the Premier’s comments mischaracterised for political purposes.
As lead candidate, Mathew would be the first to benefit if Family First crosses the 8.33 per cent threshold. Recent polling by DemosAU has placed the party at around 4 per cent of the vote, well short of that mark. Family First has pointed to its fundraising and grassroots activity as evidence of momentum, and the party’s preference arrangements could extend its reach. Whether that is enough to close the gap remains the central question for her campaign.
Both candidates are running for the upper house, where proportional representation gives smaller parties and lesser-known entrants a more realistic path than the seat-by-seat contests of the House of Assembly, where incumbency and local recognition carry more weight. Neither Singh nor Mathew has framed their campaign around a single community. Both have focused on cost-of-living and housing concerns that cut across Adelaide’s suburbs and regional centres.
The Indian-born population in Greater Adelaide stood at 42,933 in the 2021 census, around 3.1 per cent of the metropolitan area, making India the largest non-English-speaking country of birth in the region. That population has grown in recent years as South Australia has attracted skilled migrants across sectors including health, technology, and services. The political relevance of that community lies less in any bloc-voting pattern than in the professional and civic experience new citizens bring into public life, something both candidates are drawing on as their central credential.
The election is being contested in conditions unusual in recent South Australian politics. Labor is heading towards a second term under Premier Malinauskas with a commanding lead across published polling. The Liberal Party faces a diminished lower house presence, with its primary vote having fallen from the mid-30s in 2022. One Nation, polling as high as 24 per cent in February surveys, is reshaping the upper house contest and is expected to win at least two Legislative Council seats. That redistribution of support means the upper house outcome is likely to be more unpredictable than in recent elections, with seats at the margins of viability being contested by a wider range of parties.
Both Singh and Mathew are part of that wider contest. The issues they are campaigning on, housing costs, pressure on small businesses, and access to services, sit at the centre of this election. That is where their campaigns are focused.
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