Daniel Wills: Liberals place their bet on Labor failing in game of power

JAY Weatherill and Tom Koutsantonis launched a sneak attack in the last week of State Parliament, seeking to sideline the Liberals, writes Daniel Wills.

IN the power games over electricity, this was the only move the Liberals could make.

Premier Jay Weatherill and Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis launched a sneak attack in the last week of State Parliament, bringing their new power legislation on without notice and seeking to sideline the Liberals as both unprepared and unwilling to take swift action on the energy crisis.

Now, Labor gets everything it claims to have wanted and all the extra responsibility that entails.

Mr Weatherill has begun to rebuild political support in the past month after announcing his energy “plan”, which is headlined by the scheme for a new taxpayer-owned power station.

Labor had been getting pummelled on the power issue since the statewide blackout. It looked to have no answer to clear problems of price and power security that were besetting the state.

Worse, its best defence was often to just pretend the obvious problem didn’t even exist.

Mr Weatherill is now demanding a renewed benefit of the doubt as he shows up at photo-ops with solar panels and a booklet under his arm that suggests a bright change is coming for SA.

Tom Koutsantonis and Jay Weatherill hold a press conference on SA’s blackouts.

By announcing a plan that offered several simple solutions to many of the complex problems concerning SA households, he snatched back control of the energy narrative.

But that is also a bold bid, and an all-or-nothing political play. Having said he has a plan, and promoted its power to fix SA’s problems, voters will rightly expect Mr Weatherill to deliver.

Much of the expert advice is that huge power prices are inevitable, and blackouts likely.

If both are realised by summer, in the midst of a state election campaign, the plan could fast be branded a bust and all credit gained in the past month paid back as blame, with interest.

By giving Mr Koutsantonis free rein, the Liberals have placed their bet. They don’t think the plan will work, and want Labor to own its failure. The alternative would have allowed them to be blamed for tying Labor’s hands, and made culpable for the worse they think is to come.