Michael McGuire: Health Minister Jack Snelling’s sudden resignation leaves Labor scrambling for answers
HEALTH Minister Jack Snelling’s sudden resignation creates a lot of problems for Labor — including who will replace him as a cabinet minister and as a local MP.
- Political bombshell: Jack Snelling is quitting politics
- New RAH: Our special report on one of Snelling’s main legacies
- Transforming Health: Why the reforms were so controversial
- Polling shock: Boundary shift put Snelling in danger of losing his seat
THERE is no doubt that the sudden resignation of Health Minister Jack Snelling has caught the Labor government by surprise.
Six months before an election, the timing is awkward for Premier Jay Weatherill. Not only does he have to find a new Health Minister, the party will have to find a greenhorn candidate for the northeast suburban seat of Florey for an election that is tipped to be the most volatile in recent memory and in which every seat will be crucial.
Health is among the most complex and political of portfolios. Whoever steps in — and candidates include Education Minister Susan Close, Police Minister Peter Malinauskas and Employment Minister Kyam Maher — will have to learn quickly so as not to become a political liability just before the March election.
Snelling has been under the cosh almost every day of his more than four years in the job. He had to oversee the building of the new $2.3 billion Royal Adelaide Hospital — a project whose timelines and cost seemed to blow out every time he stood in front of a microphone.
Then there was Transforming Health. A highly contentious suite of reforms that drew strong opposition from many within the health system. Decisions such as the closure of the Repat and the downgrading of elements of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (before a belated backflip) caused serious heat for the government.
So, it is curious in many ways that Snelling has chosen to go now. He and Weatherill opened the new Royal Adelaide only two weeks ago, and although there have been plenty of teething problems, you would think most of the hard work has been done.
The government has already proclaimed the death of Transforming Health, perhaps a recognition the brand carried with it a political stench of death.
The further complication for Labor is that it will now have to find a new candidate for Florey.
Snelling’s original selection in Florey caused all sort of drama when the current sitting member Frances Bedford objected to the Health Minister moving seats from his safe seat of Playford.
In retaliation, Bedford quit the party and vowed to run as an independent.
It all means that Labor and Weatherill are now scrabbling to fix a problem that would not have been on its radar, diverting attention and energy from any number of other more pressing concerns that it needs to sort out before March.