Matthew Abraham: The Premier must control the roadmap out of this, not SA Health

The novelty of the Novel coronavirus is wearing off fast, and placing all his faith in unelected geniuses can still cost the Premier and the state, writes Matthew Abraham.

The last time a South Australian premier handed our destiny over to an unelected and largely unaccountable genius, it ended in tears.

In many ways, we’ve never stopped reaching for the Kleenex.

The time was the “greed is good 80s”, the premier was Labor’s John Bannon, sadly no longer with us, and the man he trusted with the state’s future was the also late Tim Marcus Clark.

Nothing sadly missed about our Tim.

From the mid-80s, Bannon trusted Marcus Clark, the State Bank’s CEO, to turn the historically fuddy-duddy institution into a state-owned money-making machine.

When it collapsed in 1991, taxpayers were left holding the can as guarantors. It was an astoundingly stupid economic catastrophe.

Infamously, Bannon had taken a “hands-off” approach to the bank’s operations, leaving the money business to the experts, whose expertise was meant to be making shiploads of cash.

Despite growing business community concerns, the Liberal opposition was too scared to rock Big Tim’s boat, with the courageous exception of then Liberal MP Jennifer Cashmore.

Bannon remained blissfully insulated to the bitter end.

Former State Bank managing director Tim Marcus Clark outside of the Supreme Court in 1996.

Forer South Australian Premier John Bannon in 1992.

It’d been a long time between drinks, but SA now has a different premier in Steven Marshall who’s placed our destiny in the hands of unelected and largely unaccountable people – his Covid-19 transition committee.

Fortunately, not one of these people bears any comparison to Marcus Clark.

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens, chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier, the committee chair Nick Reade, who is the Premier’s Department chief executive, and three other senior bureaucrats, are decent, selfless public servants.

But that’s not the point.

The point is the Premier does not sit on the committee nor does any minister, although we’re told it works “hand in glove” with the Marshall Cabinet.

Really?

Does the Premier or the Cabinet seek outside advice from infectious disease experts, independent of SA Health, to challenge the committee’s decisions? It doesn’t look like it.

And why doesn’t Labor do so?

This is the Great Marshall Experiment. While the Premier has belatedly taken a more up-front role at Covid media briefings, it’s bleeding obvious that Commissioner Stevens calls the shots while Professor Spurrier loads the bullets.

It may seem ridiculous to compare the State Bank disaster to how the Marshall Government handles the pandemic, but Covid-19 and its ugly Delta variant poses an economic and a social risk to this community that dwarfs the bank’s $3.1bn collapse.

The state debt alone from the pandemic is already eye-watering and will run for generations, if it’s ever paid off.

We don’t know what contribution the Premier makes to the transition committee’s decisions, apart from pleading for some eased restrictions for business.

The political stakes are high.

The Delta variant is the pandemic’s Mad Mouse rollercoaster.

Premier Marshall is leading a minority government into the state election next March.

Will he be the first Pandemic Premier to lose office?

The short answer is: Who knows? But the long answer is: It’s certainly possible, because while you can outsource the decisions, you ultimately must own the risk, a harsh reality now dawning on Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Premier Marshall shouldn’t take comfort from the nation’s four pandemic elections so far that have all returned incumbent governments in Queensland, the ACT, Tasmania and WA.

SA Premier Steven Marshall speaks to the media with Professor Nicola Spurrier, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens. Picture: Dean Martin

They were all held when we all thought we’d seen off the worst of Covid. Nobody thinks that now. The novelty of the Novel coronavirus is wearing off fast.

Right now, Steven Marshall looks well placed rolling into an election campaign. But it is his to lose.

He already leads a minority government, courtesy of three former Liberal MPs facing separate and contested court cases, and has four knife-edge seats under a 2 per cent margin to Labor’s one.

The last opinion poll, months back, had the timid ALP back in front, which is one of life’s mysteries.

If NSW decides to open up once it reaches its vaccination target, and live with rolling Covid cases and deaths, a scenario that seems more likely by the day, will we follow suit? And if not, then what?

This can’t be a “Look Ma, no hands” decision.

The Premier must take control of our roadmap out of this, not leave it to an SA Health mud map.

Yes, a good leader delegates, but there’s also a saying that successful leaders “delegate but don’t abdicate”.

That was Bannon’s mistake.

He thought Marcus Clark had all the answers. He just wasn’t asking the right questions.