Premier Peter Malinauskas’s huge university merger is a much needed victory

Premier Peter Malinauskas has scored a huge political victory by spearheading a much-vaunted university merger, Paul Starick writes.

Spearheading a much-vaunted university merger is a huge win for Premier Peter Malinauskas in the biggest political test of his 18 months in office.

The key achievements have been wrangling the universities to strike a historic agreement, then convincing crossbenchers to forge a political deal to enable crucial legislation.

This is testament to the Premier’s skill as an alliance builder and negotiator, forged from his upbringing in the shop assistants’ union and Labor politics.

It’s an important time for Labor to savour a political victory. The government has been justifiably attacked for failing to fix the ramping crisis and blundering through a relocation of police horses from Thebarton.

The Voice referendum delivered hammer blows to federal Labor, both in the size of the South Australian No vote and its scale in the ALP outer suburban heartland.

If the university merger had stalled or been defeated, Mr Malinauskas’s agenda for the year would have been peppered with holes.

Instead, Labor has gathered much-needed momentum with a significant win as the political year starts to draw to a close.

University of Adelaide vice-chancellor and president Professor Peter Hoj, Premier Peter Malinauskas, University of South Australia vice-chancellor and president Professor David Lloyd. Meeting in room at South Australia Suite, VALO Adelaide 500, in December, 2022. Picture: Paul Starick

A major open question from the merger deal, though, is the price of the horse-trading with the crucial crossbenchers, SA-Best’s Connie Bonaros and One Nation’s Sarah Game.

Ms Bonaros is understood to have sought concessions for Flinders University, while Ms Game told The Advertiser on Tuesday she had been concerned with merger costs and where the money would come from.

The substantive policy question is whether the merger will succeed.

This has been discussed for years, in various iterations, and ultimately now will be judged in years to come.

Mr Malinauskas and Deputy Premier Susan Close – from Labor’s Right and Left factions respectively – have been the architects of this merger.

Labor’s policy was formulated in early 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and revealed by The Advertiser that October.

They herded the universities into the merger outcome, putting an amalgamation commission with powers to effectively compel them to combine on hold.

An unprecedented deal was inked last December to start a merger process, then both university councils backed the merger in July, signing a heads of agreement with the state government, which promised almost $450m.

But a parliamentary committee inquiry into the merger loomed as a significant roadblock in June, when Mr Malinauskas faced the fight of his life to make the merger happen.

The inquiry gave merger critics, particularly tertiary unions usually friendly to Labor, an open platform to voice widespread concerns.

(Front L to R) Chancellor of the University of SA Pauline Carr, Premier Peter Malinauskas, Chancellor of the University of Adelaide Catherine Branson sign a historic agreement for the creation of a new university for South Australia. Picture: Emma Brasier

But the committee report, tabled in parliament on Tuesday, gave a critical endorsement, if somewhat guarded, for the merger process.

The deal though, it seems, had already been struck, as Ms Bonaros and Ms Game were coy on Tuesday afternoon and fellow crossbenchers expected them to eventually back the merger legislation.

Now the government can move on to the next challenge – getting its Hydrogen and Renewable Energy Act through parliament.