South Australia's opposition leader is yet to retract comments that have been branded misleading by the state's Electoral Commission, despite a Labor Senator doing so after the authority made a kindred accusation against him.
Electoral Commissioner Mick Sherry has found a claim made by Opposition Leader Steven Marshall that the Liberal's energy policy would save SA households more than $300 is misleading, as many of the savings would occur regardless.
Federal Labor Senator Alex Gallacher was also "inaccurate and misleading" when he claimed in a flyer that "the Libs have a secret plan to cut $557 million of the GST share from South Australia", the commissioner found.
In separate letters to the Liberal and Labor camps, who levelled complaints that led to the findings, Mr Sherry said he had asked each party to publish retractions.
That call was heeded by Senator Gallacher on Wednesday.
"The statement was inaccurate and misleading to a material extent, and I now retract it," he said in a statement.
Mr Marshall opted not to withdraw his comments, first made in October, though he told reporters his party was in dialogue with the electoral commission
"We are looking at that issue at the moment but the reality is we are not moving away from our position to positively promote our energy plan for South Australia," he said.
He said the Liberals had been upfront about the details of their plan, having published in full a report that followed an independent verification of it.
"We've been very clear and we've been very honest with the people of South Australia," he said.
Premier Jay Weatherill begged to differ, calling the inaccuracy of Mr Marshall's claims a "hanging offence".
"He has been misleading, he has been incompetent and South Australians can not afford to risk their future on Steven Marshall," he told reporters on Wednesday.
Mr Weatherill distanced himself from Senator Gallacher's flyer, saying the material had "nothing to do" with his team.
"I don't know why he did that, it was a mistake. He didn't publish it any further as soon as it was drawn to his attention," he said.
SA-BEST leader Nick Xenophon said he expected Mr Marshall to issue a retraction.
"If he made claims that were unsubstantiated he needs to correct those claims and he needs to do it ASAP," Mr Xenophon told reporters.
Mr Xenophon did not escape a slap on the wrist from the electoral commission, which said he had breached the Electoral Act for having too much advertising on a Fiat Bambino campaign car.
The SA-BEST leader said he thought parts of the Act may be in breach of the constitution and that the car won't be stood down before Saturday's election.
"The Fiat Bambino will be around right until the close of polling," he said.
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