/ 21 March 2022

Labor wins the South Australian showdown

Image source: AAP
Image source: AAP

THE SQUIZ

South Australia has a new state government and will get a new opposition leader with Labor making a convincing return in Saturday’s election. Steve Marshall’s Liberals became the first government to lose office since the start of the pandemic with an almost 7% swing against them. And Labor, which has turfed out the Liberals after one term, retakes the reins having been in power for 16 years before their defeat in 2018. 

WHAT HAPPENED?

There’s still 45% of the vote to count and 8 seats that are considered to be in doubt, but what is certain is the Liberals had a shocker with Deputy Premier Dan van Holst Pellekaan losing his seat, and Marshall’s is touch and go. The prediction is that Labor could win 28 seats – that would leave the Liberals with 15 and independents with 4. That gives incoming premier Peter Malinauskas a buffer above the 24 seats needed to control the 47-seat House of Assembly. Delivering his victory speech on Saturday night, Malinauskas said Marshall’s phone call to admit defeat was “utterly generous, gracious and it was done with the class that we have become incredibly familiar with”. And in 20 years time, he said he wants people to say “that this generation decided not just to think about the next 4 years, but for the next generation, to live out on that truly egalitarian Australian ideal that we care for others more than we care for ourselves.” 

THAT’S NOT GOOD NEWS FOR SCOTT MORRISON… 

Well, it depends on who you’re talking to… Federal Liberal MPs yesterday said the South Oz election was fought on state issues focused on health and the Marshall Government’s management of the pandemic. The polling pointed to trouble for the Liberals because of the  pressure put on the state’s hospitals as Omicron cases surged after the border was opened in November. But Federal Labor figures say PM Morrison is unpopular in South Oz, and that he was a drag on Marshall’s reelection chances. “I saw numbers that suggested that one in 2 South Australians – one in 2 – were less likely to vote for Steven Marshall when they were reminded that he and Scott Morrison were of the same party,” said Labor/South Oz Senator Penny Wong yesterday. But they would all say that, wouldn’t they… There’s only one way of finding out what it truly means at the federal level, and that’s via an election that’s due to be held by 21 May.

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