Conservatives want SA parliament review

The South Australian parliament needs greater accountability and a maximum of two terms for premiers, the Australian Conservatives say.

Upper house MP Robert Brokenshire says the parliament is overdue for a review and has put forward a suite of changes to encourage a more bipartisan operation.

They include optional preferential voting in the lower house, abolishing paid parliamentary secretaries and an increase in the number of standing committees.

Premiers would also be limited to serving for two terms, equal to eight years while the lower house would get an independent speaker and the upper house an independent president.

Earlier this month Senator Nick Xenophon called for fewer MPs and more sitting days to turn parliament into a "workhorse for South Australians".

Senator Xenophon is planning to leave the federal parliament to stand for a lower house seat in SA at the next state election in March.

But Mr Brokenshire said the senator's suggestions were disingenuous and short-sighted.

"It is time we took a magnifying glass to how we do things in this state," he said.

"I am talking about a full review of the way parliament runs, something which needs to go much further than the warm, fuzzy, simplistic headline-grabbing reforms suggested by Mr Xenophon."