Why the political honeymoon is over for SA Premier Peter Malinauskas

Voters swooned when Peter Malinauskas shed his shirt during the election campaign but his political honeymoon has ended with Thursday’s budget, writes Paul Starick.

Voters swooned when a gym-honed Peter Malinauskas shed his shirt during an election photo shoot at the Adelaide Aquatic Centre.

My colleague Matt Gilbertson, whose alter ego Hans was a grand finalist in America’s Got Talent, declared Mali had given new meaning to the term “hard Labor” with his “chiselled abs and pumped-up arms”. He was jocularly branded the Commander in Beef.

That February 12 election policy launch thrust Mr Malinauskas beyond the realms of politics into the general public spotlight. He became a celebrity, of sorts, rather than another politician pitching for office.

Peter Malinauskas with his daughter Eliza on February 12 at the Adelaide Aquatic Centre, where he announced plans to redevelop the site. Picture: Brenton Edwards

This was the start of Mr Malinauskas’s electoral honeymoon. This continued through the March 19 state election, when he spearheaded Labor’s landslide victory.

It extended past the victory’s afterglow, fuelled by the new Premier’s confident charm, hospital photo shoots and swift transition to national political figure.

But the Malinauskas honeymoon is over and, in the words of the 1993 Cruel Sea song, it’s never gonna be that way again. The political honeymoon ended on Thursday, when his government’s first budget was handed down. No longer is the Labor leader able to just talk about his ambitious agenda and plan its implementation. It’s now time to start delivering.

The daily grind of government has started. The budget’s objective was met – to start funding Labor’s $3.1bn in election promises. Now Mr Malinauskas and his ministers have a huge amount of work ahead to make things happen.

They must substantially reduce ambulance ramping, create more than 550 hospital beds, employ hundreds more doctors, nurses and paramedics, build a world-first $593m hydrogen power plant, deliver a $2bn plus Women’s and Children’s Hospital and implement the biggest infrastructure project in the state’s history, the $9.9bn North South Corridor.

Mr Malinauskas told his ministers at the government’s first cabinet meeting on March 28 “that we have no time to waste” because: “The simple fact is that Labor was elected with a very substantial election policy that cuts across a whole suite of portfolios that is aimed at the long-term prosperity of our state.”

Premier Peter Malinauskas and Treasurer Stephen Mullighan at the Adelaide Convention Centre for the state budget media lockup. NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

This ambition is already being cruelled by economic headwinds, as Treasurer Stephen Mullighan acknowledged in his budget speech. These are intensifying, as Westpac chief economist Bill Evans explained in a note issued on Friday, when he declared the Reserve Bank “almost certain to raise the cash rate” at its June 7 meeting to aid the “formidable task” of dampening inflation.

The unions that helped propel Mr Malinauskas into office have found their members’ interests do not always coincide with those of a self-declared “pro-business Labor leader”.

Four major unions – including the shop assistants Mr Malinauskas once led – wrote to Labor MPs on June 2 opposing the tightening of workers’ compensation laws urged by a coalition of business groups.

“It is disappointing that so early in the term of a new Labor government our unions are writing to you due to a decision of your cabinet and caucus that hurts working people,” the letter says.

In his post-budget attack, Opposition Leader David Speirs zeroed in on Mr Malinauskas’s core ideology – the critical importance of creating jobs for working people. He attacked year-long delays to projects including a Flinders Medical Centre upgrade and the new WCH.

The Liberal leader condemned forecast flatlining jobs growth, highlighting this would plummet from 3.25 per cent this financial year to 1 per cent over the next four. Mr Speirs declared the Liberals “can’t help but wonder if Labor is capable of actually delivering on their lofty promises”.

Mr Malinauskas must be aghast at the dismal jobs growth forecasts.

In an interview with The Advertiser last year, he argued: “When people make an assessment about who should govern the state and govern the country, they legitimately ask who is best placed to provide decent working jobs for their family.”

As the shop assistants’ union state chief in 2013, he delivered a speech declaring only Labor could deliver “real wage growth on the back of improving productivity, not just profitability” and “only Labor has well-paying jobs as its core business”.

“The trick for Labor is not getting distracted by other ventures, albeit some of them very important, to the extent we forget the core business. If this agenda is not ideologically pure enough for you, if you need more social engineering in your politics, then join the Greens. For everyone else, it’s time to bring out the A-game,” he said.

Almost a decade later, the Premier and his team need their A-game to deliver their substantial agenda.