Richardson: SA’s political Slowdown
Five years ago this week, a fella named Rick Phillips took it upon himself to lay into then-Premier Mike Rann, who was attending a Labor fundraiser at the National Wine Centre. The weapon of choice, aptly enough, was a rolled-up copy of Winestate magazine.
It’s fair to say that, since that moment, there’s been barely a dull moment in South Australian politics.
The plot thickened when Phillips’s estranged wife Michelle Chantelois showed up, only months out from an election, claiming to have had an affair with the Premier (he dismissed their relationship as nothing more than a “funny, flirty” friendship). But, buoyed by its December 2009 pledge to redevelop Adelaide Oval, Labor hung on despite losing the popular vote.
It then flailed for a year or so, a tumultuous period in which Jay Weatherill challenged Deputy Premier Kevin Foley, who survived and went on to deliver a union-baiting, belt-tightening budget, be assaulted (twice) while out on the town, and break down in tears during a press conference before finally bailing out. Bernie Finnigan was elevated to the frontbench, only to be swiftly arrested and charged with child pornography offences, with his case still playing out before the courts.
Finally, Rann was tapped on the shoulder by a right-wing delegation on behalf of left-winger Jay Weatherill; and no sooner had Jay moved into the Premier’s office than the Liberal leadership of Isobel Redmond began to implode. A challenge by Martin Hamilton-Smith and Steven Marshall (who’d only entered parliament two and a half years earlier) saw MH-S banished to the backbench while Marshall, bizarrely, nestled in as Redmond’s deputy. That was two years ago this month; three months later, he was elected unopposed as leader after Redmond walked out, fed up with continued speculation about her future. She hasn’t uttered a word to the media since.
"But if the Weatherill administration, which promised bold policy but has instead delivered the usual motherhood statements in bold type, is lacking direction, the Liberal Opposition knows exactly where it’s going. Backwards, and fast."
In the run-up to the next election, Labor was dogged by child protection scandals and the announced closure of Holden, but again hung on despite losing the popular vote. The balance of power fell to two conservative independents, but one fell seriously ill before nominating his preferred party of Government; the other opted for Labor, antagonising his electorate, but no more than the Liberals voters of Waite were antagonised when Hamilton-Smith subsequently crossed the floor to join Weatherill’s frontbench. Just when things were settling down, a Families SA carer was arrested and charged with a string of child sexual assaults and a contamination scare prompted the evacuation of residents in Clovelly Park.
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So all in all, it’s been a tumultuous five years. Until now.
The inertia in and around state parliament has been palpable of late, on both sides of the house. We generally expect cyclical lulls at this point in the political calendar, once the electoral maelstrom has died down and still more than three years from the next polling day. But it seems, perhaps, the parliament is compensating for the fact it missed out on a corresponding lull four years ago by being extra indolent this time round.
This week, the first post-election SA Newspoll saw Labor nudge ahead 51 per cent to 49, the Government’s first two-party preferred lead in five years. Its first, indeed, since Phillips decided to whack the then-Premier with a rolled-up magazine.
It’s a result that’s come despite some party insiders making no secret of the fact they believe the Government is coasting, directionless. A bad Government.
But a Government that picks its enemies well, spending up big on a campaign against the Abbott Government, whose budget bolshiness is no doubt impacting the state Liberal brand.
Labor did, this week, finally enact long-promised sanctuary zones, but managed to hit the wrong note in doing so, with minister Ian Hunter tactfully dismissing the legitimate fears of commercial fishermen facing financial ruin by insisting that “they’re not borne out in any public surveys” which, he claimed, showed “75 per cent of South Australians support sanctuary zones”. In other words: I’m not denying your livelihood is threatened, I just don’t really care!
"The Libs, like most Opposition parties, are content to revel in failures of governance, of which there are many."
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But if the Weatherill administration, which promised bold policy but has instead delivered the usual motherhood statements in bold type, is lacking direction, the Liberal Opposition knows exactly where it’s going. Backwards, and fast.
The fire in Steven Marshall’s belly when he entered parliament, the vigorous drive to form Government, appears to have been extinguished, even temporarily, by the bitter dregs of electoral failure. These days he is still amiably competent, but he seems a little too comfortable. He seems content to be Leader Of The Opposition.
Perhaps he just recognises that it is a long road ahead, and he is pacing himself. There is, sadly, nothing in it for the conservatives to be ahead in the polls right now. They complain about emergency services levy hikes, but Marshall won’t commit to reversing them if he becomes Premier in 2018. Why would he? If Labor rolls over on ESL, the whole controversy will be swiftly forgotten, and a future Liberal Government would inherit the budget black hole that prompted the cash grab in the first place.
But it’s disturbing that the small-target rhetoric of the March election still appears entrenched: we won’t be unveiling our policy prescriptions until we know the state of the books just before polling day. Perhaps not even then.
The Libs, like most Opposition parties, are content to revel in failures of governance, of which there are many. But their recent headway on the legitimate issue of emergency department overcrowding quickly became a PR disaster when it was revealed Liberal Health spokesman Stephen Wade had falsely attributed the death of an elderly woman to hospital delays. The gaffe almost postponed the deceased lady’s funeral, as the coroner sought to investigate; the folly was compounded when Wade’s office sent the police round to have a word with her bereaved son, after he vented his frustration over the phone.
But it hasn’t been all bad for the Liberals; they played their cards deftly by bringing the Clovelly Park contamination fears to public attention, and came within a vote of winding back the no-take zones in Labor’s marine parks legislation.
The poll result, then, will be a slap in the face. All Marshall has hung his hat on since March is that a majority of South Australians wanted a Liberal Government. According to Newspoll, this is no longer the case.
The Opposition shouldn’t be panicked, but it should be cognisant of the message from the electorate; Government won’t simply fall in your lap, no matter how lacklustre the alternative. You need to stand for something, and clearly communicate what you stand for.
The past five years may have been chaotic, but at least they’ve never been dull.
Right now, though, we have a lethargic Government and a lost Opposition, both missing the one great impetus a looming election tends to prompt: a sense of urgency.
Tom Richardson is InDaily’s political commentator and Channel Nine’s state political reporter.
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