Sam Duluk’s departure makes a safe majority a little shaky
The sacking of scandal-plagued MP Sam Duluk brings and end to the Marshall Government’s comfortable position in parliament. Michael McGuire runs the numbers.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The banishment of Liberal MP Sam Duluk doesn't threaten the future of the Marshall Liberal Government imminently – but for a party which won a comfortable victory at the 2018 state election, it makes life a little more precarious than it would like.
With Duluk no longer being counted among the Libs, the Government can count on 24 votes in the Lower House out of a total of 47. There are 19 Labor members and now four on the crossbench – Duluk, Frances Bedford, Geoff Brock and Troy Bell.
Bell, of course, is another former Liberal who left the party after charges were laid against him in 2017 following an investigation by the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption. Bell, the member for Mt Gambier, has pleaded not guilty to 20 counts of theft and six counts of aggravated dishonestly dealing with documents.
There is little chance that Duluk or Bell would vote against the Government, but one option for Steven Marshall could be to replace Vincent Tarzia as Speaker to shore up the numbers. Tarzia may be unwilling to move on, but may have to take a hit for the team. He could be replaced by a crossbencher, such as Bedford.
The electors of Waite are becoming used to electing Liberals, only to see them become independents.
Duluk’s predecessor in the seat was former Liberal leader Martin Hamilton-Smith, who quit the party to join the former Labor government.
As Duluk and Bell have demonstrated, charged MPs have the capacity to undermine political parties.
The previous Labor government had to deal with the embarrassment of Cabinet minister Bernard Finnigan being convicted on child pornography charges.