Steven Marshall: SA’s new Premier — and what he’s promising

SOUTH Australia’s 46th Premier started election day at 3.15am with a walk around Victoria Park — and ended it pledging to reform the state. Here’s what you can expect from Steven Marshall’s new government.

Matt Smith

@MattPSmith

4 min read

March 19, 2018 - 10:16AM

Sunday Mail (SA)

New dawn for SA as Marshall wins election

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STEVEN Marshall started election day at 3.15am with a walk around Victoria Park.

About 19 hours later, he stood in front of hundreds of long-suffering Liberal Party faithful as he prepared to become the 46th Premier of South Australia.

Mr Marshall had only minutes earlier received a phone call from outgoing Premier Jay Weatherill conceding defeat.

He arrived at the Liberal Party function at the Hackney Hotel and Function Centre to a rock star reception.

“Thank you to the people of South Australia that have put their faith in me for a new dawn,” he told a packed room.

SA’s new Premier Steven Marshall campaigning on election day with Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy. Picture: Morgan Sette/AAP

“There have been some very dark days. We have worked well as a team to put forward a policy agenda to transform South Australia.

“The Liberal Party has been supported by a big blue army. It is a huge effort to campaign like this. It has been way too long between drinks for the Liberal Party in South Australia.

“We have been given a wonderful opportunity by the people of South Australia. We asked them to give them a majority government, to give them a reform agenda that we so desperately need in South Australia.

“I give my commitment that I will, and every single person in our team will, be working diligently every day for the next four years so we can give South Australians a brighter future.’’

Mr Marshall thanked former Prime Minister John Howard, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop for their support.

He singled out Vincent Tarzia for beating Nick Xenophon and thanked the voters in his seat of Dunstan, where he last night had polled 47.2 per cent of the first preference vote.

Xenophon on “brutal and bruising” SA campaign

“I will never ever take for granted my electorate,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Mr Marshall revealed his mother had suffered a health scare that played on his mind throughout the election campaign.

Mr Marshall told the Sunday Mail his mother Barbara, a constant source of support, had not been well.

“She has been hospitalised three times in the last three weeks,” Mr Marshall said.

He was keeping details of his mother’s sickness close to his chest but said she would be OK.

“She is a tough country woman and she will be fine but it has been a pretty tough road for her over the past couple of months,” he said.

Mr Marshall visited Barbara in hospital, and his father Tony, before heading to the Hackney Hotel, where he had vowed “to shake the hand of every single supporter”.

SA’s new Premier Steven Marshall gives his victory speech to jubilant supporters on Saturday night. Picture: Tracey Nearmy/AAP

Mr Marshall, who has been credited with holding the SA Liberal Party together despite a notorious reputation for factional infighting, had toppled a 16-year-old Labor Government.

“I told everyone on the team that we had to run a straight race and we had to run all the way to the line and not worry too much about who was in the other lanes, on either side. We just had to be out there selling it,” he said.

“There has been an army of people that have come out this election who have really wanted change. There has been a tsunami of support, people that have never been members of the party but know that we need a change of government in South Australia.”

Mr Marshall, who was up at 3.15am on Friday, had vowed to sleep-in but instead replicated the early time again yesterday.

The avid walker, who was seen on the campaign trail with Mr Howard, did a few laps of Victoria Park racetrack.

“I went for a walk around Victoria Park to get some fresh air in the lungs,” he said.

SA state election 2018 in pictures

voting for the electorate of LEE at Grange Primary school Saturday March 17, 2018, manning the sausage sizzle Pascal Sanchez and Steven Barber - pic AAP/MIKE BURTON

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Mr Marshall’s two children — Charlie, 18, and Georgie, 16 — who starred prominently in numerous election advertisements for their single father, were notably absent yesterday.

Charlie is living in Queensland and Georgie is living in England.

Despite admitting it was a shame the pair — whom he is very close to — were not there, Mr Marshall said he understood.

“In some ways this has been an all-consuming campaign and having them here and not being able to spend time with them would have been greater torture,” he said.

“Every day we are sending text messages to each other.

“My focus since Christmas has been every second, of every day, on this campaign.”