How SA handled Covid: The verdict

Survey results reveal exactly what the people of SA think of the state government’s handling of the Covid pandemic. Since the YouGov poll was held, has your view changed? Vote below.

South Australians have given the Marshall Liberal government a narrow fail for their handling of the Covid-19 epidemic, a new national survey has found.

Fewer than half of SA respondents to a YouGov poll, conducted between December 27 last year and January 10, said the state had handled the crisis well.

While 48 per cent had this view, a further 21 per cent said it had been handled badly.

Residents of Western Australia were the happiest with the performance of their state in handling the Covid-19 pandemic, with an extraordinary 85 per cent approval rating.

Tasmanians and Queenslanders also gave their state governments ticks of approval, with ratings of 65 per cent and 60 per cent respectively.

Opinions were less favourable in NSW and Victoria, where the number of respondents who said the state had handled the pandemic badly approached the proportion who said it had been handled well.

Flinders University politics lecturer Associate Professor Rob Manwaring said the SA results were the product of a few factors.

“Marshall has been lucky in low numbers, there has also been high levels of respect for (chief public health officer) Nicola Spurrier and Police Commissioner Grant Stevens, and there’s been a relatively sensible approach,” Assoc Prof Manwaring said.

“The discontent reflects when the previous outbreaks did take place the Premier was scrambling badly – especially the ‘pizza’ outbreak,” he said.

People queue at a supermarket after the South Australian state government announced a six-day lockdown because of the Covid-19 outbreak in Adelaide on November 18, 2020. This was the infamous ‘pizza box’ incident. Picture: Brenton Edwards/AFP

Many Australians have been surprised and incensed by some of the powers the state premiers have exercised during the pandemic, reviving longstanding debates about our federal system and whether three levels of government is one level too many.

Since the YouGov poll was conducted, has your view changed? Vote below:

Forty-four per cent of respondents to the YouGov survey agreed with the statement “Australia should have fewer levels of government,” although they were not asked which tier they would be happy to abolish.

A slightly smaller proportion – 41 per cent – said three levels of government served us well, while 16 per cent of people surveyed said they were undecided.

Flinders Uni lecturer Dr Rob Manwaring. Picture: Flinders University

Griffith University’s senior lecturer in politics Dr Paul Williams. Picture: Supplied

Assoc Prof Manwaring said Covid-19 had “brought frustrations with federation to the fore,” but any change in this area would require constitutional change – and very few referendums to achieve this have ever succeeded.

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott had sought to advance discussions about “streamlining” the federation when he was in power, Assoc Prof Manwaring said, but the discussions had ended with his prime ministership and not been revisited since.

Griffith University politics lecturer Dr Paul Williams said the survey results were a “snapshot of people expressing their disgruntlement” but it was unlikely state governments would ever be abolished.

“We’ve been talking about this for 100 years and it’s never happened,” he said. “The states are embedded in most chapters of the Constitution; it would be too difficult.”