Daniel Wills: A week to forget for Premier Steven Marshall as three SA ministers fall amid two expenses and perks controversies
The travel expenses scandal threatens to make the land tax saga look like a minor distraction. Steven Marshall is trying to put it behind his government – and fast, writes Daniel Wills.
Opinion
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Premier Steven Marshall and the State Government have just endured their most bruising week since coming to power. Now they want to leave it behind as quickly as possible.
In rapidly cascading events last weekend, the Liberals’ travel expenses scandal rose to fevered heights and further revelations emerged about the signing of blank time sheets and use of a ministerial car.
By Wednesday, the careers of three ministers had been left in its wake and replacements sworn in.
When Mr Marshall fronted the media on Sunday to confirm the resignations of former ministers Stephan Knoll, David Ridgway and Tim Whetstone amid the expenses and perks scandals, he had slightly odd but also surprisingly candid reasons.
“SA currently faces unprecedented challenges, both from a health and economic perspective,” he said. “It is absolutely critical that my government remains focused.
“The distractions of the past week have been extraordinarily disappointing and unacceptable.
“I have formed the opinion that these cannot continue into the future. I have made that clear.”
Mr Marshall seemed to be talking about two very different distractions.
One was the focus of ministers being taken away from their day jobs by continuing questions about what they claimed and when, as well as an Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry now under way.
The other was the distraction of the public and media focus from the government’s record on beating back SA’s coronavirus curve, and the fight that is beginning to rebuild jobs through a historic recession.
Mr Marshall and his colleagues learnt the hard way just how politically debilitating a long and drawn-out public fight can be. The land tax saga took up the best part of the second half of last year, and has resulted in a new and far more decisive outlook on media management.
In a pitched battle with its own base, and with several Liberal MPs also threatening to cross the floor, the government was strangled and stifled by land tax.
That issue had nowhere near the same negative effects as a rolling expenses and perks scandal that confirms pre-existing public biases about politicians being in it for themselves. But the open-endedness of the land tax saga meant front page ink and broadcast time were subsumed by it.
There was no place for any of the government’s more positive messages to get prominence.
By March this year, an Advertiser-Galaxy poll to mark halftime in the Parliament had Labor with a commanding 53-47 lead and Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas in striking distance of bettering Mr Marshall as SA’s preferred leader.
Just as alarming for Mr Marshall would have been that 26 per cent of respondents said they weren’t sure which of the two they would pick.
After two years at the bully pulpit, with all the resources of the public service and an unrivalled ability to shape the SA discussion, he’d failed to make a mark with more than a quarter of voters who still didn’t have his full measure.
There is now a clear determination within government that a dead fish cannot be left rotting.
When it becomes apparent that one issue or another is a stinker, Mr Marshall ruthlessly seeks to cut his losses and move on immediately.
The failed bus reform led by Mr Knoll now looks a telling portent.
Despite planning a long period of public consultation and careful implementation, Mr Marshall threw it in the trash after a couple of weeks as the public spoke in shrill voice.
The delayed resignation of long-serving Liberal MP Adrian Pederick amid ongoing Labor pressure after the ministerial resignations was obviously designed to ensure no loose ends in the expenses saga.
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Mr Marshall appears intent on going to the next election with a few simple key messages. There has been cost of living action by cutting water and ESL bills. He is also already pitching himself as someone who is “keeping SA safe and strong” through COVID-19.
Political campaigns usually boil down to a few simple sells, especially when talking to the disengaged centre in marginal seats that decide the winners.
The messages of “strength” and “more money in your pocket” are powerful if Mr Marshall can be heard.
There are some signs this second attempt at barnacle clearing in almost as many weeks is succeeding. The grinding disaster of COVID-19’s spread through Victoria, in contrast to SA’s security, is again top of the news.
But there are still hazards to navigate ahead of Parliament’s restart. The reshuffle clarified new factional dynamics in the Liberals, the effects of which remain unpredictable as jockeying continues for the plum roles of speaker and president.
But things could be, and were, far worse just a short time ago.