Malinauskas delivers a rare dose of common sense to Canberra | David Penberthy

There have been significant moments in recent weeks where SA’s Premier set himself apart from Canberra’s squabbling ideological packs, writes David Penberthy.

So much of politics is nonsense and gimmickry.

The curse of short-termism means that at the federal level both sides of politics can seem more interested in beating each other than focusing on the proper running of the country.

In an exciting and welcome move, Peter Malinauskas looks increasingly like a bloke who has little interest in partisan ideology and is prepared to approach his job from a position of common sense rather than allegiance.

There have been a few significant moments in recent weeks where the Premier has set himself apart from Canberra’s squabbling ideological packs by taking a pragmatic stance.

He has done so in the context of the number one challenge/opportunity facing SA, delivering on the AUKUS deal.

He has also shown a determination to respond to community concern over an issue that families really care about.

The first telling moment was his appearance at a business lunch sponsored by BHP and The Australian newspaper where he took aim at the ideological absurdities surrounding the AUKUS deal.

In comments which reflected poorly on the intellectual smarts of federal Labor and other Labor premiers, Malinauskas opened the shoulders over the inherent hypocrisy in our paralysed national debate over nuclear waste storage.

Premier Peter Malinauskas delivers the keynote address at the Defending Australia Conference at Old Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman

He noted how former WA premier Mark McGowan and ex-Victoria premier Dan Andrews had immediately ruled out their home states as a possible site for nuclear waste storage.

He described this as a NIMBY debate, and said politicians should be guided by science, not vote-grabbing parochial interests.

He even said that if the science said SA was identified as a remote and geologically stable place where waste could be disposed of safely, so be it, let’s house it here.

He then drifted into the broader question of nuclear power generation, confirming that as far as he was concerned the only obstacle was a financial one, and that if the numbers were right nuclear could be a valuable carbon-neutral addition to the energy mix.

Malinauskas aimed his comments at both the Left and Right of politics in calling for a wholly science-based debate.

“For me, all of the ideological opposition, the NIMBY arguments against it – I think they’re ill-informed. I don’t think that’s doing the country much of a service,” he said.

“But I also think the country is not well-served by what has now become a culture war debate on nuclear, where you’ve got the far right saying: ‘Aha, here we go, we’ve got it. We’ve got all these lefties being opposed to nuclear, we’re gonna build nuclear’.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has been focussed on nuclear reactors recently. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“And those people seem to be utterly indifferent to what it would actually mean to the cost of electricity. I think that’s nuts.”

Malinauskas also pointed out the absurdity of anyone in Australia now arguing we want no part of the nuclear fuel cycle when we just signed a defence deal requiring us to construct nuclear-powered subs and dispose of the high-level nuclear waste they generate.

He is dead right.

On this issue, we are now akin to the Methodist Temperance Union holding its meetings in the front bar of the Exeter Hotel.

The second telling moment were the Premier’s comments this week about population at the Defending Australia symposium organised by The Advertiser.

Again, Malinauskas skewered the illogical calls to wind back migration when we absolutely need skilled migrants to honour on AUKUS deal.

The number of jobs required by AUKUS is some 10 times greater than the local car industry required at its peak. For reasons of national security, many of the AUKUS jobs cannot be done by non-Australian citizens.

So at a time when it’s hard enough to get a tradie to do anything, and when employers are crying out for staff, as a nation we now have both Federal Labor and even more aggressively the Federal Coalition demanding huge reductions to the migrant intake.

The only way we could fill the jobs required by AUKUS would be to shift thousands of sparkies, plumbers, concreters, architects and engineers out of their current jobs and down to Osborne.

The construction industry would grind to a halt.

It’s completely ridiculous and will lead to the hollowing out of the job market and leave us unable to deliver on AUKUS at all.

What makes Malinauskas’s comments exciting and welcome is that he clearly doesn’t care whether they clash with Federal Labor, or indeed anyone.

And at a time when other Labor premiers are stumping for the kind of woke social engineering nonsense epitomised in Victoria, or opting for the desperate cash giveaways being seen in Queensland where Labor is trying to bribe its way to another term, the SA Premier is reading the room well by using the authority of his office to explore age bans on social media apps for kids.

Malinauskas is in a unique and lucky position where he somehow managed to smash a generally competent and inoffensive government after just one term.

Since that drubbing he has compounded the pain with Labor winning Dunstan in what was a dismal by-election for the Libs.

With the Opposition still licking its wounds, it seems to have dawned on the Premier this past month that he can be more confident and more bold in pursuing a national agenda.

It is a far cry from the cargo cult stuff which has dominated and marred South Australian politics for decades – save the car industry, save the Murray, build the Alice to Darwin railway, give us defence jobs.

All that achieved was to make us sound like a bunch of can-rattling provincial bludgers.

There is simmering speculation – and in other poorly governed states, hope – that Malinauskas will go federal.

The past few weeks suggest that he can function as a federal figure anyway by doing his day job the way he likes, with scant regard for the tired old shibboleths and strictures his older federal colleagues still hold dear.