Daniel Wills: 24 hours of Cabinet chaos leaves Labor with a clean slate in health and chance to transform politics that turned toxic

NEW Health Minister Peter Malinauskas has a huge challenge in taking over SA’s hospitals, but Labor has a great chance to make a new political sales pitch, writes State Political Editor Daniel Wills.

New Police Minister Chris Picton, Health Minister Peter Malinauskas, Premier Jay Weatherill and new Disabilities Minister Katrine Hildyard at Government House. Photo: Calum Robertson.

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LABOR will try to turn chaos into opportunity, as the exit of two ministers in charge of the health system offers the chance of a political reset in a portfolio that has turned toxic.

Former health minister Jack Snelling leaves the job with a complex legacy. He had the courage to attempt major reform in a sector of government that had become wildly expensive while delivering sub-par results.

He also oversaw the delivery of the $2.3 billion new Royal Adelaide Hospital, beset by legal challenges and construction delays. But the political cost was huge.

The Transforming Health agenda became synonymous with cutbacks, and has now been discarded as a tarnished brand.

The new RAH continues to have early teething problems.

And the state still waits for delivery of an Independent Commission Against Corruption report into the disgrace that is the Oakden aged care affair, with publication expected later this year.

This time last year, a Sunday Mail-Galaxy poll found 64 per cent of the state was opposed to Transforming Health, including a majority of Labor voters. It’s likely to have only worsened. Dangerously for Labor, many of the hospitals most affected are in or near marginal seats.

New Health Minister Peter Malinauskas has the reverse situation of his predecessor. He starts with a limited grasp of how the system works.

It will take him years to build the corporate knowledge in Health that Mr Snelling had.

This makes it more likely there will be administrative trouble as a new minister runs up against a bureaucracy which has outlasted a string of predecessors and has a culture all its own. But Mr Malinauskas is unburdened by all the baggage a reforming minister like Mr Snelling accrues.

He has a blank slate and an opportunity to shift the Government’s health narrative.

While tough moments lie ahead, most significant being the Repat closure, Mr Malinauskas can look forward to a fair share of ribbon-cutting and can pitch a new direction.

Mr Snelling absorbed the poison that comes with reform, and is now out of the picture.

There is another subtext in the story that deserves close attention. Mr Malinauskas is the presumed next leader of the Labor Party.

SA Government's new Cabinet line-up

Should Labor lose the election, he is likely to get the job immediately. Should it pull off a surprise win, a transition is expected sometime next term.

It is very hard to be a popular health minister. It is a huge portfolio that deals with thousands of people when they are at their most emotional and vulnerable.

Mr Malinauskas’ appointment has much to do with his assured handling of Police and Emergency Services since becoming a minister last year.

But Premier Jay Weatherill has also handed a big challenge to a potential leadership rival, and sooner than he may have wanted it. In the next six months, we’ll learn a lot about Peter Malinauskas.

Long seen as a man with the potential and talent to become the premier, this assignment will truly put him to the test.