Paul Starick: Covid cases soar under Premier Peter Malinauskas but he avoids blame

Tens of thousands of people are isolating, Covid cases are soaring – but new Premier Peter Malinauskas isn’t copping any of his predecessor’s heat, Paul Starick writes.

Covid cases are surging in the first weeks of Premier Peter Malinauskas’s newly installed government but he is not wearing anything approaching the intense heat directed at his predecessor, Steven Marshall.

Tens of thousands of people are either in isolation because they have Covid or are considered a close contact.

This is creating havoc in schools, workplaces, sporting clubs and households like never before during the pandemic. Only statewide lockdowns – thankfully, becoming an increasingly distant memory – were more disruptive.

Official modelling predicts Covid case numbers will peak in early April before plateauing by the middle of the month. About 8000 daily cases are forecast – exceeding the record of 5697 positive cases on January 14, when there were 34,428 active cases.

Latest figures show 33,380 active cases. Just before the official start of the election campaign and Adelaide’s festival season, on February 13, there were 13,621.

Yet Mr Malinauskas is stamping his authority as Premier to relax restrictions, rather than tightening them as Mr Marshall did when the Omicron wave hit last December.

Senior Liberals argue this Omicron wave triggered a disastrous slump in public support for Mr Marshall’s government, resulting in the March 19 election bloodbath.

Premier Peter Malinauskas chairs the first cabinet meeting of the new Labor Government. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

But while businesses and many in the community became frustrated and angry at Mr Marshall’s Covid response, Mr Malinauskas appears to have successfully tapped into the mood of frustration with the pandemic’s rules and regulations.

This began the day after Labor’s landslide election victory – in his first interview as Premier-elect – when he told The Advertiser he would challenge Covid authorities over rules on mask-wearing, close contacts and isolation within hours of being sworn into the state’s top job.

Carefully defining his Covid mission, Mr Malinauskas said he would be “closely examining all of the options that are available to the government to ensure that a transition back to normality occurs as expeditiously as possible but in a safe way”.

In one of his first acts as Premier, Mr Malinauskas met with Police Commissioner Grant Stevens, chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier and just-sacked SA Health chief executive Chris McGowan.

The eventual result were sweeping changes to Covid regulations – close-contact quarantine rules were slashed and an end to widespread mask-wearing signalled. It is understood Mr Malinauskas believes the state remains on track to significantly relax mask mandates from April 14.

In another exertion of the Premier’s authority, pandemic decision-making has been brought into a subcommittee of state cabinet, the emergency management council.

Perhaps the most significant expression of Mr Malinauskas’s pragmatism was on March 25 when he bluntly and summarily crushed an Australian Education Union call for April school holidays to be brought forward by a week.

Premier Peter Malinauskas tours a vacant room at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

“What I’m saying is the idea of shutting down school for a week would have to be the option of the most last of resorts, and I don’t think we’re anywhere near that,” he said.

It is understood the Premier had called Education Department chief Rick Persse the previous night to assess whether the move was being contemplated.

During that conversation, Mr Malinauskas made clear that he did not support any holiday extension, because of the impact on working families and businesses.

There is some political risk for Mr Malinauskas as he continues to relax Covid rules. Firstly, he has vowed to act on health advice, just as he wedded Labor to throughout the pandemic. More particularly, though, Labor’s central election campaign promise was to reduce pressure on hospitals and ambulances.

An explosion in case numbers has, thus far, not significantly increased the ranks of Covid patients in hospital. But the regrouping Liberals would be handed a substantial political weapon if hospitals became overwhelmed under Labor.

In Queensland, for example, the soaring number of Covid cases has put the health system under such serious strain that some hospitals are considering cancelling elective surgery.

At the moment, there is no effective Opposition. The Liberals have no leader. But movement on this front is expected within a fortnight. Former environment minister David Speirs is the favourite to become leader.

Parliament is expected to resume in May, possibly earlier, and a decision on a state budget day is expected soon.

Mr Malinauskas wants to hit the ground running. As his Covid changes show, he is determined not to be overwhelmed by events.

Time will tell if this once-in-a-generation politician transfers his significant potential to leading government.