Newly installed Premier Peter Malinauskas apologises for Labor’s privatisation of South East forestry during Mount Gambier visit

New Premier Peter Malinauskas has vowed to fight for the South East, as he apologised for Labor’s decision to privatise forests during a visit to the area.

Premier Peter Malinauskas has apologised for Labor privatising the South East’s forests on his first trip outside Adelaide as state leader, visiting Mount Gambier to recommit to a $100m funding package for the region.

Keeping a pre-election promise to tour the state’s second-largest city within 72 hours of being sworn in, Mr Malinauskas on Wednesday outlined funding of more than $50m for health in the region, including $24m to upgrade Mount Gambier Hospital, and $35m to build a technical college in the city.

Praising the Limestone Coast as an agricultural economic powerhouse, Mr Malinauskas visited rock lobster fishing operations at Port MacDonnell hit by Chinese trade sanctions and a thriving Mount Gambier sawmill hunting for skilled workers.

Newly elected Premier Peter Malinauskas with a crayfish on a boat in Port McDonnell. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

After touring the city’s hospital, Mr Malinauskas apologised for the previous Labor government selling off the region’s state-owned forests.

“I think selling the forests was wrong but we can’t go back in time, we can only go forward,” Mr Malinauskas said.

“I think this part of the state has been ignored by previous governments of both sides and I’m seeking to put an end to that.”

Mr Malinauskas then went to Port MacDonnell, visiting family-owned business operators at Limestone Coast Fishermen’s Co-operative and going aboard a cray boat, Brojak, in the harbour.

Cooperative director Chris Sealy told him Chinese trade sanctions had slashed the price of cray from up to $95 per kg to about $40 per kg, but fishing costs were about $37 per kg as diesel and other prices soar.

Asked how much smaller operators like him were making now, Mr Sealy said: “Bugger all.”

Mr Malinauskas outlined his government's plans for $2.6m of licence fee relief in 2022/23 for cray fishermen, which Mr Sealy said he planned to put towards equipment for his boat, such as a depth sounder, that he had not been able to afford.

Mr Malinauskas said that because of Chinese trade sanctions, without fee relief people faced losing small businesses that had been operated by families for generations.

“If we’re not willing to look after these people in a trade war, well, who are we willing to look after?” he said.

Aboard Brojak, Brodie Williams, 23, told the Premier the past two years had been the best rock lobster seasons since his grandfather started cray fishing in the 1940s.

“Last year was the best anyone has ever seen it and this year was better again. If the trade war wasn’t a thing and affecting our prices, these two years would have been the best ever.”

Peter Malinauskas tours the Mount Gambier Hospital. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

It was the Premier’s first trip to the regions since Labor’s landslide win at Saturday’s election over Steven Marshall’s Liberal government.

Labor on January 21 promised a $24m Mount Gambier Hospital upgrade, $3.5m for community drug and alcohol services and $7.4m to fund 24 additional paramedics for the region.

It said the extra ambulance officers would be in place by July 2024 with a 24/7 crew located in Mount Gambier plus 12-hourregional transfer crews in Mount Gambier and Keith.

The $24m Mount Gambier Hospital funding would include an $8m emergency department redevelopment, $11.4m on six new mental health unit beds and $4.6m for two drug and alcohol detox beds.

A $3.5m commitment towards four new community drug and alcohol beds in the regional city would prevent patients “getting bogged down in the ED”, Labor promised at the time.