A late-night coup, an economy on the brink and a government that effectively condones corruption. As Crikey asked yesterday: is South Australia becoming a failed state?
For those not across the intricacies of SApol, this week has been a doozy. Near midnight on Tuesday, rebel Liberal MPs joined forces with Labor to oust speaker Josh Teague and replace him with Liberal turned independent MP Dan Cregan.
Days earlier Cregan had created his own turmoil by abandoning the Libs after earlier suggesting he was quitting Parliament altogether. The act of political savagery, made even more sinister by the fact that it happened just before midnight, has been described as a kind of guerilla warfare, or in Aussie terms, the ultimate “dog act”.
“It’s a mess,” political analyst at Flinders University Rob Manwaring told Crikey.
“A lot of these issues have been simmering away for a very long time. But what we don’t know is how this is going to play out in terms of instability.”
From one brawl to another
The same conservative defectors to oust the speaker have also sided with Labor to back a conflict-of-interest inquiry into the next most powerful person in the state, Attorney-General Vickie Chapman, over her refusal to back a port at Kangaroo Island where she has property interests.
Observers say the tussles are more of the same political infighting that kept the party in opposition for 16 long years. But the factional warfare has heated up under the moderate Marshall government, which has moved to decriminalise abortion and introduce assisted dying legislation, angering conservatives.
With an election due next year, the question is whether Premier Steven Marshall has lost control of his party, and indeed the Parliament.
But beyond economic instability and political infighting there are concerns about the way in which the state is being governed. Job figures this week confirmed SA’s unemployment rate rose to 5.1% last month, the highest in the nation.
Misconduct and maladministration
As Crikey previously reported, last month SA MPs unanimously voted on a bill that would strip the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) of its powers to investigate misconduct and maladministration, despite some MPs voting on the bill being targets of ICAC investigations.
This drew a blistering rebuke from ICAC commissioner Ann Vanstone QC, who told a parliamentary hearing it was the ultimate conflict of interest, and such a bill would shield politicians from scrutiny and ultimately allow corruption to go undetected.
Manwaring says while the state on the whole was still fairly stable from a democratic point of view, there were genuine concerns about governance, with constitutional decisions being rushed through and a considerable underrepresentation of women in Parliament.
Whether or not the state is really turning into a banana republic, it’s shocking stuff in the lead-up to an election.
“The government should be cruising to a pretty comfortable second term,” Manwaring said. “It’s kind of breathtaking — in part because we’ve only had a Liberal government for a few years.”
One thing we are seeing more and more of is that in these increasingly uncertain times, the “Liberal” method of politics as practiced in Australia is getting more and more both unsuitable and untenable.
With too many ‘committed’ Christian types in the background to support fringe policies….
As I posted yesterday: I’m not convinced it makes any sense to take those various events in the SA parliament and roll them into one. The knee-capping of the SA integrity commission by a unanimous vote in both houses looks bad and very likely is bad. But the dissent among Liberal MPs against Liberal Party ministers, the investigation of possible ministerial conflict of interest, and parliament’s insistence that the Speaker must be independent, all look like a real assertion of parliament’s authority against an overbearing executive. If only members of other Australian parliaments had such gumption! The last thing it looks like is a failed state – unless you think any proper state must be run by its executive without any signs of opposition permitted.
Yes, it feels like the Crikey mob are drawing a ridiculously long bow here. As someone who lives in Australia, the decision to knee-cap the SA Integrity Commission came across as a classic “baby out with the bathwater” approach, exploited by those who wanted the Commission gone for more nefarious reasons. The way the Commission’s actions led to the death of an innocent police officer were utterly reprehensible, and did signify a need for some reform…..but what we’ve seen is massive overreach by parliament.
The ICAC legislation was changed due to a Police officer being investigated for a long period of time, until he committed suicide.
It seems to me that in this case the delays to the investigation were clearly unacceptable, but throwing the baby out with the bath water was an over reaction.
Agree with you here. The case of the police officer was tragic, but the speed at which both sides of the floor jumped on the ICAC seemed less like promoting justice, and more like an excuse to rid themselves of a common enemy.
An over-reaction and perverse. If the problem is unacceptable delay, the answer is probably more resources and/or removing procedural obstacles.
Any excuse to kill it. The corruption watchdog that is.
Whatever happened to the progressive state with that hip guy in the shorts?
The Libs took over.
Funny, I have been banging on about this for years – well before Biden. When the Libs decided to kick out car manufacturing in SA they should have bought the plant and developed an electric car. Say the Holden-E. Pass legislation that all government cars shall be electric. By now we would have started the flooding of the second hand market with Electric cars. Also advancing and developing the design.
SA would not have become an unemployment and technoligical backwater to the same extent it has. (Where have all the submarine jobs gone – sung to a seekers tune.)
Our LNP promoted Aussie Cringe is creating a lot of hurt for our citizens.
Too eezy.
It could have been called the 11+.
(It’s actually not too late – for unknown reasons this country still retains a coil winding capability.)
Unfortunately that would need supplies of copper…and other minerals like coal, iron and…ummm, ahh.
Oh, well, nice idea.
Ummm remember you lot voted for the LNP both state and federally…so you can stop the complaining
Not the Seekers Maroochy; Joan Baez or – my favourite version – Marlene Dietrich.
Written by Peter Seeger (plus Joe Hickerson’s kicker lines in the last couple of verses) probably best known from PP&M and the Kingston Trio.
I think Marianne Faithful did a typically harsh version during her Broken English phase.
If referring to Don Dunstan as “that hip guy in the shorts” he resigned in about 1978. And they South Australians are slow.
Oy! Not nice, the Libs have been unelectable over the previous 4 election cycles due to in fighting, thus leaving the Labor party as the only cohesive option if not overly popular.
And as for your last comment, it’s not worth sinking to the same depth as yourself.
Yep that is the one!
Don Dunstan moved SA light years ahead from its previous moribund cultural condition. He unveiled its value as an artistic hub & tourist attraction.
But his reign was clouded with controversy – personal & political – not the least being when he sacked respected Police Commissioner Harold Salisbury.
IIRC, the Special Branch flat out refused to comply with Dunstan’s wishes, citing ‘..a Higher Duty to the Crown than the government of the day.”
Endorsed by a Garfield Barwick opinion.
Surely you mean that they are always so far ahead that they grow weary of waiting for the rest ti catch up?
Like Hesse’s Siddhartha or the Sainted Terry’s Ig?
Having lived in Adelaide for almost a decade recently, I can say with confidence that the Liberals were always going to struggle to hold on to government after defeating Jay Weatherill’s previous, mostly popular but tired, Labor administration. The reasons are twofold. One, SA is traditionally a Labor voting state, recent electoral redistributions notwithstanding. The lack of jobs is a major concern. Most people don’t trust the business-orientated, privilege-supporting Liberals to have their best interests at heart. The class divide is very real in SA.
Secondly, the SA Libs are a riven party, with conservative Pentecostalists holding the reins now at branch level. Moderate pragmatists like Marshall are under siege. You correctly point to infighting being deadly to the Liberals re-election hopes. Believe me, no-one in SA will be the least surprised if they are soundly defeated by a rejuvenated Labor party next time. SA’s problems will not be solved by conservatives. Radical, innovative thinkers willing to shake up the old, moribund economic ground will be well regarded, just as Jay was with his renewable energy revolution.
A favourite political moment when Jay Weatherill savaged the pathetic excuse for a Liberal ditherer, Josh frydenberg.
Josh just stood there with a stupid grin on his dial while Weatherill did him over.
SA at the moment is essentially Covid free but Marshall is keen to open the borders before Christmas. Given that chronically under funded and under resourced SA public hospitals are already not coping with their existing case load, allowing delta Covid into the state will be a dangerous and probably lethal move that could easily see the hospital system crumble. If that happens, Marshall’s current problems will look minor and his chances of being re-elected in March will be non existent.That said, word round the traps is that he might not be Premier at the next election, so he may not need to worry.