Matthew Abraham: It takes a freaky kind of discipline to not say anything vaguely controversial for three and a half years

Should the Premier actually be in the room for key Covid decisions? The answer is obvious so why won’t the Labor leader just say it, wonders Matthew Abraham.

You’d think someone who’s spent half his adult life behind a microphone would know better than to shout at the radio.

Throughout what I loosely call my ABC radio career, a recurring comment from random listeners was this: “I love your show, but you make me so angry”. This always struck me as odd. Why not just switch off? Now I know how they feel.

Last Monday morning I found myself yelling at the radio on the way to launch the tinny at Outer Harbor. Alone in the car, it was like Bart Simpson’s grandfather shouting at the clouds.

Labor Leader Peter Malinauskas. Picture: Dean Martin

South Australian premier Steven Marshall. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

David Penberthy was interviewing Labor Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas on FIVEaa and asked a simple question: If you are Premier after the election, will you sit on the Covid Transition Committee?

The answer must be a “Yes”. It’s become ludicrous for Premier Steven Marshall to argue he doesn’t need to sit on the pivotal committee, instead allowing chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier and Police Commissioner Grant Stevens to run the joint.

The Labor leader ploughed through one of his trademark, vacillating answers. “The Premier’s not even in the room when decisions are made,” he said.

“I think that system has worked well for the state up until this point … that’s probably a good thing that he’s not focusing on, well, it’s probably a good thing (laughs) that he’s not in that room, we want everyone in that room to focus on the task at hand … I personally think there is a role for active leadership from the Premier here.”

Yes, then, it’s yes! Say it, for crying out loud!

“Now he’s decided not to be on the Transition Committee, I think that system works well, I don’t see an argument for changing that at this point of time.”

Aaaargh! So is that a no? I think it’s a no, at this point in time.

The Labor leader is running a textbook small target strategy. But his target is so small, not even the Hubble Telescope would spot it on a cloudless night. It takes a freaky kind of discipline to not say anything vaguely controversial for three and a half years, but that’s what he’s done. And finally, it’s starting to pay off.

Left to its own devices, and its own hubris, the wheels are falling off the Marshall Government. All the Labor team has to do is poke a stick into its spokes at strategic moments. Last week, it really flipped the Premier’s stagecoach.

A surprising alliance of Labor, independents and ex-Liberals are now in effect running the House of Assembly. The minority government’s working majority is in tatters. Not only is Mr Marshall not running the state’s COVID strategy, he’s not running parliament. He can’t even control his own fractured party. His conservative MPs love the show but he makes them so angry.

Newly elected speaker Dan Cregan. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

In a few short days, this surprising Labor-independent alliance changed SA’s constitution to require an independent Speaker, then plonked the shiny new Liberal defector, Dan Cregan, in the big chair. It’s launched a stunning parliamentary inquiry into whether Premier Marshall’s key ally, Deputy Premier Vickie Chapman, had a conflict of interest in her planning decisions on Kangaroo Island, which she denies.

Sure, Liberal MP Adrian Pederick can brand Speaker Cregan’s move a “dog act”. But the game’s called Politics, not Niceness.

Premier Marshall has fallen into the same trap Labor set for former Liberal Premier John Olsen. Labor has provided relevance and a warm welcome to conservative Liberal MPs who’ve been given the big freeze – in some cases with good reason – by their own party.

By Wednesday morning, across the dial on 891, Premier Marshall was giving a train wreck interview to my former ABC on-air partner and veteran journalist David Bevan that made the Labor leader’s effort sound polished. It’d been the night of the long knives, but Premier Marshall sounded a beaten man, saying toward the end “you have stooped to a new low, David Bevan”.

Well, his government’s stocks are at a new low. Yelling at the radio won’t fix his problems.

Last weekend, Mr Cregan quipped that if returned as an independent he’d happily buy the Premier a pizza – a reference to the Hawaiian kahuna pizza that legend has it secured Frome independent Geoff Brock’s support for the Weatherill Government in 2014.

The Premier responded: “I try to avoid pizza at my age.”

You’re never too old for pizza. And never too old to eat humble pie.