Tide is turning on Premier Peter Malinausksas and his government | Paul Starick

The tide is turning on Peter Malinauskas and his first-term government, as a hijacked press conference starkly shows, writes Paul Starick.

The tide is turning on Peter Malinauskas and his first-term government, almost 18 months into office.

This gradual change is not enough to alarm Labor powerbrokers, nor sufficient to excite Liberals about the prospect of turfing out their opponents at the 2026 election.

But Mr Malinauskas and his key ministers clearly have been unsettled by a Liberal strategy to zero in on parish pump issues, leveraging emotion and energy from NIMBY movements.

The first sign the government was flustered was in June, when it caved in to parklands campaigners’ opposition to relocating police horses to the south parklands.

The second was on Sunday, when furious Adelaide Hills resident Emma Smith hijacked the Premier’s press conference, called to discuss a 180-home Prospect development.

Emma Smith from River Road near Hahndorf confronts Premier Peter Malinauskas about the River road bypass. Picture: Mark Brake

Ms Smith is a resident of River Rd, Hahndorf, to which trucks will be diverted from the town’s main street.

She said her children’s bedroom was metres from the edge of River Rd, and her biggest fear was a logging truck going through their room.

Mr Malinauskas answered all of her questions. “We want to get trucks off the main road of Hahndorf,” he said.

But he was clearly perturbed by the inescapable fact that someone had leaked the media conference’s location.

This means there was a mole within his ranks or a green journalist had inadvertently let the details slip to the Liberal Opposition.

Whatever the case, it was an effective political blow.

It highlighted the contrast between competing agenda.

Mr Malinauskas wants to talk about transformative plans to create jobs, ease the cost of living, boost housing supply and, of course, ease pressure on hospitals.

His Liberal opponents want to throw spokes in the wheels of the machinery of government and throw off course Mr Malinauskas and his ministers.

That’s the job of Opposition.

The Liberals are igniting spot fires wherever possible. They are railing against the worst 15 months of hospital ramping in SA’s history, trying to nail Mr Malinauskas for a broken promise to “fix the ramping crisis”.

On Sunday, the Liberals fired off a polemic press release, decrying the Premier’s failure to turn up to a media stunt they engineered.

The release explained: “Furious Adelaide Hills community members, truck drivers and the Opposition jointly issued a challenge to Peter Malinauskas – ride as a passenger in a truck as it attempts to navigate past an oncoming heavy vehicle on dangerous River Road.”

Emma Smith from River Road near Hahndorf confronts Premier Peter Malinauskas. Picture: Mark Brake

Mr Malinauskas predictably declined, so the Liberals said: “ Pic-op Premier Peter Malinauskas has lapped up the media spotlight riding in the back of ambulances, but has betrayed River Road residents by boycotting a community challenge to ride as a passenger in a truck along the dangerous route.”

Opposition Leader David Speirs in parliament on Tuesday tried to transform River Rd from a local issue into a charge of potentially murderous arrogance against the government.

“Sometimes governments make mistakes, and at that point they should realise it and go back to the drawing board. To do otherwise can perhaps look arrogant at best and can lead to very unfortunate outcomes, perhaps even fatal outcomes at worst,” he said.

The Liberals are trying to rope in their nemesis, Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis, into what they hope will be an imbroglio.

“It is not ideal to have trucks going down the main street of Hahndorf. We know that, but the solution put in place by Minister Koutsantonis and backed to the hilt by Premier Malinauskas is far from ideal,” Mr Speirs said.

There is an opening for the Liberals by surfing on NIMBY campaigns. Labor took a future-focused agenda to last year’s election.

There is a necessary gap between promise and delivery – one requiring rigorous policy development and execution. The Malinauskas government is in that now.

The Liberals are starting to capitalise and there is a slight shift in momentum. The question is whether this continues, either way.