SA Election 2022: Who won the first debate, Steven Marshall or Peter Malinauskas?

The two men who want to lead SA have faced off in the first official election debate. But will it change any votes? Paul Starick analyses their performances.

In a lacklustre election debate unlikely to change any votes, Premier Steven Marshall probably just pipped his opponent with a more assured performance.

But Labor Leader Peter Malinauskas overcame a slightly nervous start to deliver some emotional lines about the fatal human cost of ambulance ramping, upon which his big-spending campaign has been centred.

In the campaign’s first debate, there were no knockout blows, no moments of great controversy and no major stumbles.

Mr Marshall opened with his strongest argument – delivering on his strategy of attracting hi-tech jobs while Adelaide has been rated the world’s third-most liveable city.

Like his campaign, this is a bid to douse any mood for change by arguing his government has improved the state’s prosperity and people’s lives.

Mr Marshall displayed a rarely-deployed killer instinct by seizing on his rival’s repeated refusals to outline how he would pay for Labor’s promises and emphasised the negative Liberal campaign of portraying Mr Malinauskas as a risk.

But this bid to dominate the economic strength argument was undermined by Mr Marshall repeating the government’s altogether too-cute claim that its election promises total less than $300m. This is based on tricky accounting – the $662m arena promised last year is funded with only $78.9m until 2024-25.

Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas during the SA Press Club debate. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

Premier Steven Marshall during the SA Press Club debate. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

Mr Malinauskas delivered a blow when asked if he would cut deals with independents in the event of a hung parliament, by correctly pointing out that the Liberals had effectively done so since last February, when they went into minority government.

In any election debate, the Opposition leader wins simply by being there – they are elevated to the same stage as the leader and, therefore, viewed as a credible alternative.

But in this state campaign, both leaders are desperately trying to cut through elevated levels of voter disengagement – people are tired of listening to politicians after two years of the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in their historic intrusion into their lives.

Mr Marshall’s task was to intensify the negative Liberal campaign, which is focused on tearing down Mr Malinauskas by branding him an inexperienced, risky former union boss with a big-spending agenda that he cannot pay for.

By contrast, Mr Malinauskas’s was to portray his focus on the future and amplify attacks on Mr Marshall for having the wrong priorities by spending $662m on a basketball stadium rather than fixing the hospital ramping crisis. The Labor leader even had a morning coffee with two ambos as a staged pre-debate picture opportunity.

Both delivered on these aims quite successfully. But they did not stray far from campaign scripts or deliver particularly telling blows.

Perhaps the most unusual and interesting moment was at the end, when the Liberal state director Sascha Meldrum’s husband, defence firm executive Chris Keane, won first prize in the raffle and Peter Malinauskas’s wife, lawyer Annabel West, won second prize. Both took home wine.