Bet-each-way Speirs needs to find a harder edge
If David Speirs wants to be taken seriously as an alternative premier, he needs to end his inconsistency and policy timidity, writes Matthew Abraham.
Maybe it was a dodgy plate of haggis.
That stuff can really mess with your system. My first and last encounter with haggis, at a bizarre Robbie Burns lunch at Adelaide’s Naval and Military Club, left the tummy and brain in turmoil for weeks.
But Liberal leader David Speirs was born and raised in Galloway, Scotland, so we can probably discount the haggis theory.
He should be immune from the Scottish national dish – a savoury pudding containing sheep’s heart, liver and lungs, minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices and salt, mixed with stock, and cooked while “traditionally encased in the animal’s stomach”. Yum.
Not that one wishes to stereotype the Opposition Leader’s tartan heritage with trite cliches.
He’s probably more an eggplant parmy and chips kind of guy.
It’s more likely he was suffering from a bog-standard case of jet lag after he lobbed back in Adelaide this week from his trip to the Old Country.
It’s the kindest explanation for the bob-each-way policy messaging that is becoming something of a Speirs trademark.
Speirs travelled to the United Kingdom on a government-funded “fact finding tour” to get up to speed on the AUKUS deal with the US and the UK to build a fleet of hideously expensive nuclear-powered submarines for Australia.
He accepted an offer from Premier Peter Malinauskas for taxpayers to pick up the tab.
Opposition leaders should be gun-shy of Premiers bearing gifts.
The Labor Government would like nothing more than to lock the Liberals into unquestioning support for a $368 billion deal that will see Australian taxpayers funding hundreds of submarine construction jobs in the UK, where the first AUKUS subs will be constructed.
You might like
It’s also looking increasingly likely that Australia will bridge a yawning defence gap by buying used or new nuclear subs from the US to get the ball rolling.
"Nuclear fuel and its associated waste disposal is political kryptonite in Australia. If you’re going to float it as a thought bubble, go hard or go home."
Jobs will flow for SA from the deal but despite the promises, it is a distinct possibility no nuclear submarine will ever emerge from our Osborne shipyards.
Former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating has described the AUKUS nuclear subs plan as irrational, with the mind-bending cost of $368 billion for maybe eight subs making it “the worst deal in all history”.
His scathing comments revved up the ALP’s nuke-shy base, heaping pressure on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the run-up to the party’s national conference that got underway in Brisbane yesterday.
Speirs toured the Barrow-in-Furness shipyards, near Cumbria, in England and defence-related shipyards in the Scottish cities of Edinburgh, Rosyth and Glasgow.
On his return, he said the trip “highlighted that the AUKUS agreement is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for South Australia”.
It would be a “step change for the South Australian economy creating a pipeline of thousands of jobs for decades to come”.
He was just warming up.
“Being able to see the entire naval shipbuilding supply chain in the UK first-hand has reinforced for me the opportunity that exists for our state,” he said.
Wow, so now that he’s full bottle he’s totally jumped on board the whole nuclear submarine deal?
Kind of.
He said the trip reinforced the need for a Parliamentary Joint Committee to ensure SA “is putting its best foot forward when it comes to making the most of this opportunity”.
A committee to make sure the state puts its best foot forward?
Would that be like the committee frustrating the Malinauskas-engineered university merger?
Or another sort of committee?
Would the committee perhaps need to go and have a good look at the submarine-building town of Barrow-in-Furness, judged the “least happy area in Britain” in a 2014 nationwide study by the UK’s Office for National Statistics.
In his 2015 book The Road to Little Dribbling, travel author Bill Bryson described Barrow as “just about the most out-on-a-limb, end-of-the-line place in England”.
Stay informed, daily
He said “these days it is famous for being forgotten and depressed”, adding that one street, full of “tattooed and dangerous-looking men”, looked like a prison yard.
To be fair, he could be describing Hindley Street, or North Terrace outside the casino, any night of the week.
All this Barrow-bashing was nearly 10 years ago. Maybe it’s brightened up since learning of the AUKUS jobs heading its way by the busload.
Speirs didn’t let any nay-saying travel guides rain on his fact-finding parade, declaring that it was also time to have “a sensible conversation about nuclear energy”.
“With nuclear submarines to be built in SA it is also an opportune time to have mature conversations about the role nuclear energy could play in Australia in the future,” he said.
The Liberal leader should know it is impossible to have a sensible conversation about nuclear energy in this country.
Thanks to the global social media outrage industry, it’s pretty hard to have a sensible conversation about anything.
We can’t even agree on a place to dump low-level nuclear waste.
Undaunted, Speirs now believes SA should consider small modular nuclear reactors costing “in the low billions”.
Rolls Royce, which knocks up nuclear reactors for subs, also produces the mini-reactors that it says are manufactured to be an “architecturally beautiful structure”. Like the Mall’s Balls, maybe.
Despite suggesting SA should consider plonking these cute reactors at the end of every street, Speirs also said “the Liberal Party of South Australia is not about to announce that we’re building one of these things, far from it”.
He just wants us to have a bit of a think about it.
Nuclear fuel and its associated waste disposal is political kryptonite in Australia. If you’re going to float it as a thought bubble, go hard or go home.
If David Speirs wants to be taken seriously as the leader of an alternative government, he could start with consistency. Voters rate that in a leader. Don’t think they don’t notice.
Before he jetted off to Barrow-in-Furness, Speirs announced he was promoting the newly-minted, South-East based MLC Ben Hood to the Liberal front bench as shadow assistant minister for regional SA.
Only six months ago, Hood, the brother of Labor’s Lucy Hood, filled the upper house vacancy created by the resignation of former Liberal Health Minister Stephen Wade.
But Speirs didn’t want him in his team. He made it clear he wanted a woman to fill the vacancy.
He reportedly had a “frank conversation” with Hood, telling him “he did not have his support, would have limited promotion and warned of a strategic blunder” if he ran for the vacancy instead of contesting a lower house seat for the party.
Speirs has not refuted this version of events.
But in his August 2 media release announcing Hood’s promotion to the front bench, Speirs says he has no doubt Hood will excel in his new role, that Hood is someone who’s deeply passionate about the regions, it is “fantastic to work alongside Ben” and he has “complete confidence” in Hood’s abilities.
Sounds like someone’s had to have a big bite of a haggis sandwich.
Matthew Abraham is InDaily’s political columnist. Matthew can be found on Twitter as @kevcorduroy. It’s a long story.
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
