The rise and fall of Stephan Knoll: Can he recover from the travel claims scandal?
Since he entered parliament in 2014, Stephan Knoll has been tipped as a future premier. But after resigning from Cabinet over the travel expenses scandal, can he claw his way back?
SA News
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- ICAC investigation into Country MPs travel claims delayed
- Knoll, Whetstone engage top lawyers ahead of ICAC
- Every available claim for every country MP since 2010
- How to get the most from your Advertiser digital subscription
Stephan Knoll once said the worst job he’d ever had was peeling the boiling flesh off of a dead pig’s head. That may well still be true, but after the last couple of months it’s possible his current occupation is now in the running to knock off that pig’s head.
Since he was elected in 2014, Knoll has been earmarked as a rising star, both by his friends in the Liberal Party and this enemies in the Labor Party. From his earliest days as the Member for Schubert he has been tipped as either a future premier or future treasurer or both.
But that is all now in question. The future is now much more unclear for Knoll. The country members’ allowance scandal, which saw him repay $30,000 in expenses claims, then prompted an ICAC investigation and his resignation from Cabinet, have knocked the shine off the golden boy.
Then last week his once-safe seat of Schubert, based in the Barossa Valley, became much more precarious after the Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission reduced his comfortable 14.4 per cent margin to 5.4 per cent. At least as a backbencher he’ll have more time to concentrate on winning his now near-marginal seat.
Not that he’s been entirely written off. Senior Liberal figures, from across the factional spectrum, have told The Advertiser Knoll can still enjoy a significant career in politics.
He just has to be patient. That even if ICAC found no breach in the accommodation expenses claims, there was no prospect Knoll would be returned to Cabinet before the 2022 state election. The ICAC investigation is now delayed as the involved MPs refuse to answer Commissioner Bruce Lander’s questions, claiming they may be entitled to parliamentary privilege.
One said Knoll was “still Marshall’s most likely successor depending on how he apologises and seeks forgiveness from the public’’.
Another said of Knoll, “yes, there is a way back, but not in the short term’’.
“He is considered to be a substantial talent and it’s a big loss him no longer being part of the ministry.’’
The other factor is that Knoll is not yet 40 and has time on his side.
Knoll has always wanted to be a politician, even as a kid, so it seems unlikely would walk away, even after all the sound and fury of recent weeks.
Last year, his father, Adelaide City councillor Franz Knoll told SA Weekend the story of how when his son was in grade three his primary school had an open day. Parents would come in and wander around and see what their kids had been up to. Being grade three the walls were full of junior artworks.
A teacher asked Stephan’s mum Barbara to identity which one she thought was the creation of her son. According to Franz, Barbara couldn’t figure out which was Stephan’s.
The teacher pointed the right one out.
“It was a picture of Bob Hawke and he (Stephan) said `I want to be that guy’,’’ Knoll senior recalled. This was when Hawke was still prime minister and while Knoll would side with Liberal rather than Labor, the child’s intent was clear enough.
“Stephan has always been political,’’ his father told SA Weekend. “His mind has always been very political, even when he ran the business.’’
The business is the well-known Barossa Fine Foods. A family company, started by Franz Knoll in 1991 in the Adelaide Central Market. Stephan and his three brothers grew up in the company, working weekends and school holidays in the Central Market.
They would also work in the factory as well. Knoll learned to make company staples such as sausages and salami, as well as presswurst, the job he nominated as the worst of all.
“You take a boiling hot pig’s head, stick it in cold water and try to peel of all the meat before your fingers burn,’’ was how he described it.
At the age of 21, Knoll was fronting national sales meetings with chains such as David Jones and was general manager of Barossa Fine Foods before being elected to parliament in 2014.
He joined the Young Liberals after John Howard lost the 2007 election to Kevin Rudd. Knoll told SA Weekend he was looking for a change from factory conversations that concentrated on “sport, car or girls’’.
“It was nerdy,’’ he said. “I was just amazed to find people, who were smart and wanted to talk about politics and the way the electricity market works.’’
Which brought him to the attention of former Liberal senator Cory Bernardi. Bernardi liked Knoll’s small-business background, capacity for hard work and self-belief. Bernardi encouraged Knoll to move to the Barossa as he knew the seat’s long-serving member Ivan Venning was retiring.
The Liberal Party had been favourites to win the 2014 election but were edged out by Jay Weatherill’s Labor. However, the newbie MP was soon marked out as one to watch. His Labor enemies thought him too young and too arrogant, but in a sign they saw him as a future threat made him a target of attacks. His supporters called it confidence.
Still, his most public moment came when he was named on The Advertiser’s front page as part of the Ashley Maddison scandal in 2015. Ashley Maddison was an adultery website that was hacked and the credit card details of its customers leaked, Knoll’s among them. The married, father-of-two children’s defence was that he had only joined as a dare from his sister-in-law and maintained he had never used the site.
It didn’t stop his ascent within the Liberal Party. Then-opposition leader Steven Marshall elevated Knoll to his frontbench in 2017, making him spokesman for police, emergency and correctional services.
However, it was when Marshall ended 16 years of Labor rule at the 2018 election that Knoll was given serious responsibility. For the two years leading into that election Unley MP David Pisoni had held the transport and infrastructure portfolios and it was expected he would retain those senior portfolios in government.
But in a “captain’s call’’ Marshall shunted Pisoni down the order to place his faith in Knoll. Such a rapid promotion endorsed the view that Knoll could one day either succeed Marshall as premier or Rob Lucas as Treasurer.
In that first year in government, the boyish features of Knoll were a regular feature in The Advertiser and on TV news.
One Liberal, who is a fan of Knoll’s, said too much responsibility was placed on the shoulders of the newbie minister too soon. He noted it was significant that different parts of the transport, infrastructure and planning portfolios had been split up between three ministers since Knoll quit.
“When he you get loaded up like that, there is paperwork flying across your desk, and you don’t tend to look at the minutiae, and that is when these things happen.’’
Certainly, most of the Steven Marshall’s new government’s early problems seemed to fall into Knoll’s portfolios. And that wasn’t always his fault.
An election promise to make the tram turn right into North Terrace was broken. Knoll gave a date that was “set in stone’’ for the tram’s North Terrace extension to start. That was missed. A budget decision to close three Service SA offices caused uproar.
Later, the government was forced to abandon another election promise. Its Globelink transport plan promised a new airport near Murray Bridge as well as new road and rail infrastructure for freight.
Knoll was also the face of an ambitious transport department plan to rework Adelaide’s public transport network. Knoll conceded stops and bus routes would go but was vague on numbers. The selling point was to be more frequent and faster services on main roads.
But the focus would be on what was lost rather than what was gained. When it emerged, and with Knoll still refusing to confirm numbers, that more than 900 stops would be lost, the public backlash became politically unmanageable.
Two weeks later the plan was dead. And for good measure the government also dumped its plan to close the three Service SA centres at the same time.
“We have seen thousands of people provide very passionate feedback. The existing network, as it is, will continue. Reform is always difficult,” was how Mr Marshall announced the ignominious retreat.
Knoll was just recovering from that fiasco when the expenses scandal hit.
The early focus was on what the former Legislative Council president Terry Stephens had been doing. The allegation, which he denies, was that he was mainly living in inner-suburban Norwood, but claiming Victor Harbor as his primary residence, making him eligible for the country members’ accommodation allowance. MPs who live 75km or more from the Adelaide general post office to claim $234 a night when away from home.
The scandal would eventually cost Agriculture Minister Tim Whetstone his Cabinet spot. It would embroil backbenchers Adrian Pederick and Fraser Ellis.
Knoll denied any wrongdoing but would repay $30,000. It turned out he would stay at his parent’s house when in Adelaide, but refused to say what expenses he incurred when there. Knoll said he made the repayment out of an “abundance of caution’’.
However, one irony is that while Labor had been alerted to Knoll’s accommodation habits, apparently by some of his Liberal Party colleagues, it wasn’t sure he had actually broken any rules and were undecided about whether to pursue it. Knoll took the decision for them when he quit.
Knoll has kept a low profile since he resigned as minister. He has employed a lawyer to deal with ICAC and it could be that Knoll’s future, and whether he can make a case for redemption will ultimately lie with the corruption commissioner.