Grandparents’ love story drives new SA Labor leader Peter Malinauskas

A LOVE story forged in the stricken aftermath of World War II is driving new Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas’s rebuilding of the state Labor Party. Paul Starick reports.

A LOVE story forged in the stricken aftermath of World War II is driving new Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas’s rebuilding of the state Labor Party.

His late paternal grandparents, Eta and Peter, were Hungarian and Lithuanian refugees fleeing the march of Communism across war-torn Europe as the Iron Curtain fell.

“Their story, for me, has had a profound impact on my view of the world and my politics. But sometimes in ways you wouldn’t expect,” Mr Malinsukas told the Sunday Mail.

Eta had worked in a forced Nazi labour factory, making munitions, and had been forced to leave a daughter from a previous relationship behind in Hungary, under her sister’s care because the father had died.

They met at a Bathurst migration camp in 1949, fell in love and agreed to marry. For a time, they forged separate paths to make money. Peter went to Woodside in the Adelaide Hills and worked as a cook while Eta remained in NSW.

Mr Malinauskas (second row, fourth from left) in a photo from the Mercedes College Yearbook when he was in Year 12 in 1998.

Overcoming a language barrier by exchanging letters in makeshift German, they eventually agreed to meet at Parafield Airport to begin their life together.

Eta spent her life savings on the plane ticket and a new dress. She arrived at the aerodrome but Peter was not there. Rain poured and her indomitable spirit collapsed.

Hours passed and a taxi arrived. Peter emerged – they’d confused the meeting time because of the language barrier.

They married and bought a block of land on Trimmer Pde, Seaton, where they built their home and, for many years, operated a fish and chip shop. After that, Peter sold fresh fish across the western suburbs for some time. Eta was still volunteering at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in her 90s.

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Almost 70 years after they came to Australia, their grandson, 37, was installed last week as state Labor’s leader, realising a long-anticipated rise to the party’s top job for the former shop assistants’ union boss. Asked by the Sunday Mail to describe Eta and Peter’s influence on him, Mr Malinauskas declared: “I don’t even know where to begin.”

Given their backgrounds, both were vehemently anti-Communist which, in 1950s Australia, meant a deep mistrust, at best, of the ALP.

But their values and principles were, according to the new Labor leader, “all about opportunity”.

One of Mr Malinauskas’s early memories of his grandfather is displaying his treasured Australian citizenship certificate, describing the opportunities and freedom his adopted country had afforded him.

“He was always talking about opportunity – every opportunity you’ve got to grab,” Mr Malinauskas said.

In his maiden speech in December 2015, Mr Malinauskas paid tribute to his grandparents, saying the state was facing economic challenges but painted an optimistic vision.

“This state can offer as much opportunity to young South Australians as it did to my grandparents 65 years ago, but none of that is possible until as a community we believe that any adversity will be overcome. The necessary reforms are becoming more complex, requiring an elevation of the political discourse beyond the latest gotcha moment,” he told Parliament.

“We must do more, and work hard, to lower unemployment. Ambition has to start with belief. No one has ever achieved great things without believing in themselves first.”

Mr Malinauskas with Federal Labor colleague Nick Champion and the state Labor member for Light, Tony Piccolo.

For some years, Mr Malinauskas has seized opportunity, in a fashion that would likely have made his grandfather proud.

His Catholic family sent him to Mercedes College, where he was a student representative council member and school captain in Year 12. While at school, he got a casual job at Woolworths Mitcham, coming to the attention of union organisers. As a shop floor representative, he met former union chief, now senator, Don Farrell, who offered him a job visiting workers as a union rep.

Studying commerce at Adelaide University, he was faced with a choice of the traditional accounting/business path or the union movement. He opted for the latter, rising through the ranks to become the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association state secretary at 27. Within three years, he joined Right factional colleague and Labor minister Jack Snelling to tell then- premier Mike Rann – the party’s leader since 1994 – his time was up.

Sunday Mail front page on Mike Rann’s ousting as Labor leader in 2011.

Peter Malinauskas in 2010.

Asked by the Sunday Mail if he’d forgiven Mr Malinauskas, Mr Rann replied to the email by generously and extensively congratulating him on his election as leader.

Mr Malinauskas opted for state politics over federal, entering the Upper House in December 2015. He wanted to be at the coalface of service delivery while remaining close to his young family – children Sophie, 3, and Jack, seven months. Wife Annabel, a lawyer, is on maternity leave. They celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary last week.

At 37, Mr Malinauskas represents generational change for both the ALP and SA politics. He is the first leader of either major party born in the 1980s, while none have been 1970s babies.

Premier Steven Marshall turned 50 in January, while outgoing Labor leader Jay Weatherill is 54.

As Mr Malinauskas faces the rigours of opposition, his ideology will involve striving to create a modern, robust economy. Growth, he says, should be not just for the economy’s sake but to make sure growth is delivering for people.

“Whatever people say about government, the truth is it still remains the strongest possible avenue for change in society,” he said.

“For someone who wants to see a prosperous economy delivering for everybody in our community, and not leaving anybody behind, that’s the desire to be in government, to ensure that social justice mission.

Mr Malinauskas with wife Annabel, daughter Sophie, 3 and son Jack (seven months). Photo: Naomi Jellicoe

“The main game is to be able to have a decent standard of living for everybody. Now, people’s standard of living is entirely a function of their work ... Work provides dignity for everybody – it doesn’t matter what your work is.

“Your work could be being a committed parent, your work could be a job performing an elementary task for an employer, it could be owning a small business, it could be running a business, it could be being a brain surgeon – all work provides dignity.

So jobs is the main game. It’s not a raw economic pursuit, it’s a social pursuit as much as anything else ... When we ask ourselves, in terms of policy settings, what we should be doing, that’s got to be central.” Mr Malinauskas, a keen footballer who in 2013 captained a lower-grade premiership for his beloved Adelaide University Blacks, now faces a leadership test on a far grander scale. The rising star has become the boss of a party unaccustomed to opposition after 16 years in government.

He will sit in the Lower House for the first time on May 8 as leader, his party’s hopes invested in him realising his long-held promise to take Labor back to government. If Mr Malinauskas can seize this opportunity, his late grandparents’ inspiration will have played a key role.