Paul Starick analysis: Labor leader Peter Malinauskas’s courageous move over blackmail allegations

Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas was courageous to report to police an alleged blackmail attempt by a former political ally.

Triggering a police blackmail investigation resulting in the arrest of a one-time political ally was a courageous move by Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas.

But the arrest of former Labor MP Annabel Digance and her husband Greg, charged with blackmailing Mr Malinauskas, also opens up the risk of damaging claims against Mr Malinauskas and the ALP being aired in court, during a committal hearing, in the months before next March’s state election.

The charges against the Digances, revealed by The Advertiser, relate to threats allegedly made to Mr Malinauskas by the pair last year and over recent months. According to police, the alleged threats involved making false accusations about Mr Malinauskas’ conduct in order to politically wound him in the lead-up to the state election unless he submitted to their demands to orchestrate Ms Digance’s return to politics.

Triggering a police blackmail investigation resulting in the arrest of a one-time political ally was a courageous move by Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

Mr Malinauskas last year lodged a complaint with police – who allege the threats continued even after Mr Malinauskas told the pair he intended to report them.

The matter is now before the court, where the allegations will be appropriately tested. Ms Digance, the former MP for the state seat of Elder, is entitled to present a defence.

This creates the prospect of her alleged accusations being levelled during a committal hearing later this year.

At best, this would be a distraction from Mr Malinauskas’s campaign for the March 19 election.

Former Labor MP Annabel Digance in the back seat of a car being driven into the Adelaide Magistrates Court on April 14. Picture: Emma Brasier

The Digances’ arrest also complicates a parliamentary inquiry successfully moved last month by Deputy Premier Vickie Chapman. This stemmed from Ms Digance’s moves to apologise for a 2014 election campaign leaflet targeting her Liberal opponent Carolyn Habib, now Carolyn Power.

The leaflet was branded racist for asking voters “Can you trust Habib? – a slogan depicted against a bullet-riddled wall.

On March 31, Ms Chapman said this select committee would examine Ms Digance’s “claims she was frightened to speak out in the aftermath of the ‘Can You Trust Habib?’ flyer scandal and bullied into silence by a powerful ‘boys’ club’ within the Labor Party”.

The terms of reference for this committee focus on this scandal, rather than wider claims of “toxic Labor culture” also referenced by Ms Chapman at the time.

This raises the question of whether Ms Digance and Mr Malinauskas will appear before the committee or can decline because the matter is now before the courts.

The committee is yet to be formed, so this remains an open question. It is understood, however, that it will be up to both Ms Digance and Mr Malinauskas as to whether or not they speak but the committee can call them.