Just when you thought it was safe to emerge from the dizzying maelstrom of political intrigue…

Given that we vote at least twice every three and a half years on average, it’s no mere quirk that South Australians will have to go to the polls twice in little more than six months. But the quick succession of federal and state ballots does tend to make one feel like a swimmer trying desperately to flail his weary way beyond the incessant surf; just as you catch your breath after one onslaught another bears down upon you.

And the pace will be unrelenting. State parliament has wound down of late, as its members await their federal counterparts’ fates, but from Tuesday the tone will be set for the ensuing campaign. A motion by Family First to establish an upper house inquiry into matters arising from the Debelle Royal Commission has the potential to cripple the Weatherill Government.

"Weatherill now seems weary: weary of the whole caper, certainly weary of the constant interrogations and accusations."

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It’s now approaching a year since the ghastly business was finally, desperately raised in the media by the mother of a student at a western suburbs school at which a staff member had abused a child. The political fallout from that revelation – that the school community had been deliberately kept in the dark, that Jay Weatherill’s office has been informed and had not passed on key information to the minister – dented Labor’s confidence and its re-election hopes. The Government limped into last year’s Christmas break, only for the Premier to return breathing fire; he banished Education Minister Grace Portolesi in a reshuffle that brazenly set out to establish himself as an irresistible political force, a sort of Kevin Rudd without the temper. So bloody was his handiwork, it almost resembled the aftermath of some Shakespearean tragedy: “Thou hast it now: Premier, Treasurer, Glamis, all.”

But the fetid stench of the administration’s child protection failings has continued to hang over this parliament, fanned by a rabid Opposition and finally exacerbated by Bruce Debelle’s damning report. Weatherill now seems weary: weary of the whole caper, certainly weary of the constant interrogations and accusations. But an Upper House inquiry will see those questions continue and, indeed, give them renewed focus and urgency; not to mention publicity. There are legitimate lines of inquiry raised by the Debelle report that have not been adequately answered (largely because it was not within his remit to do so).

The lack of accountability over maintenance of departmental records would certainly be at the centre of any upper house inquiry (Debelle’s report outlines that while Weatherill’s chief-of-staff received an email outlining the incident at the western suburbs school and forwarded that email on, there is no record of who he sent it to, and he does not remember; the computer was subsequently “decommissioned”). I’m told there is a general understanding (though not a “policy”) in political offices that you shouldn’t delete emails, but since Inboxes quickly fill up, particularly with data-heavy attachments, this is practically impossible, and rarely adhered to. At any rate, the discussion over how records of email correspondences were maintained (or not) may at least lead to clearer guidelines being formulated and followed in future. Which, while not as explosive as overhauling departmental processes on reporting child abuse, is still an important reform for open government.

The general theme emerging around Labor of late appears to be a Government either unaware of procedures or deliberately avoiding them, as was apparently the case that prompted the Auditor-General’s scathing assessment of the procurement process for the Adelaide Oval redevelopment. There was a series of proper processes eschewed, all of which Infrastructure Minister Tom Koutsantonis now concedes, although he maintains builder Baulderstone is still the best and cheapest option. But it’s hardly surprising, when the project was always geared for completion at the seemingly arbitrary deadline of Round One of the 2014 AFL season – a week that happily coincides with the state election.

Workers are on-site practically around the clock to bring the project in on time; if they fail, the contractor pays a hefty financial price, but nothing like the political one Labor will pay.

As if anyone was inclined to waste time going through a rigorous procurement process.

Labor was a Government in a hurry, and as such it’s had a propensity to occasionally trip over its own feet. It is, of course, gambling that a raft of major projects will win over the waning hearts and minds in time for the March poll, but it will be hard to paint a glorious picture of infrastructure-led recovery if Labor continues to be sidelined by the Debelle inquiry fallout. And a Legislative Inquiry would likely facilitate just that. Just when you thought it was safe…

Tom Richardson is InDaily’s political commentator and Channel Nine’s state political reporter.