The survey calls went out across a number of suburbs between 6.15 and 7.15am on Wednesday instead of on Tuesday night.

"I sincerely apologise for any inconvenience or annoyance caused by these early morning survey calls to households," state director Sascha Meldrum said in a statement.

The calls asked voters if they thought South Australia was generally heading in the right direction or in the wrong direction.

"Treasurer Rob Lucas said the calls were a "blunder".

"I suspect that someone's backside is going to get a boot, as it should," Mr Lucas said.

"It shouldn't have happened. No sensible person would be commissioning polling or robocalling at six am in the morning. It's only guaranteed to irritate people."

Mr Lucas said the calls were not paid for by the government or taxpayers but by the party organisation.

"The government didn't commission it, the taxpayers haven't funded it," he said.

Opposition frontbencher Tom Koutsantonis said the robocalls were completely unacceptable and were an indication the government was worried about the impact of the recent state budget.

"(Premier) Steven Marshall and the Liberal Party have managed to annoy hundreds, if not thousands of South Australians, with phone calls in the early hours of the morning," he said.

"The Liberals are worried they've lost control of the agenda."

Mr Koutsantonis said it also appeared the calls were a breach of the law governing such communications which prohibited calls before 9am and after 8pm.

Australian Associated Press