Peter Malinauskas, Susan Close cop blame as Labor’s real useless sods go missing on SA algal bloom disaster | David Penberthy

We know the Premier’s been away as the algae crisis hits fever pitch but where are the useless Labor sods who whitewashed Adelaide at the election, writes David Penberthy.

Peter Malinauskas is a confident guy not prone to bouts of maudlin introspection. If he were he would currently be asking himself the following question: “Jeez, can’t a bloke go on the occasional private holiday with his wife and kids?”

The fair answer to that should be: of course he can. He can and he should.

Men the world over have a history of working too hard and spending limited time with their families. Work cannot always come first.

In politics, where the truism holds that all political careers end in tragedy, most careers also end with profound regret as former politicians look back on all that time spent away from their partners and children and rue what they’ve missed.

But here’s the problem.

Be it fairly or unfairly, when any leader goes away in politics they also have to ask themselves the following question: How many votes am I prepared to lose if the s**t hits the fan while I’m away?

Through an exquisitely bad bit of timing – for the first time in an otherwise untroubled career – Peter Malinauskas has taken a genuine hit this past week.

Not only was he out of the country when public alarm in SA hit fever pitch over the algal bloom.

He was out of the country as the punters cottoned on big time to how unfathomably useless and indifferent the federal government has been to our predicament.

He was out of the country having created a perception that, as Premier, he had failed to lead a whole-of-government response to this crisis.

He hadn’t championed it as he done with Whyalla or the social media reforms or the university merger.

He hadn’t grabbed it the way he has grabbed genuine good news stories for the state such as LIV and Gather Round and the return of the V8s.

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas, Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt and Federal Boothby MP Louise Miller-Frost this week. Picture: Tim Joy

He looked like he had outsourced it to his Environment Minister and deputy Susan Close and was off with his feet up somewhere while all hell break loose.

It was a complete political debacle for a bloke who had not previously experienced one.

There are two issues at play here which I will deal with separately.

The first is a state issue going to the Premier and his style of leadership; the second deals only with the feds, who deserve both barrels for their sluggish and arrogant approach to this whole sad affair.

State Labor has created a rod for its own back by making Malinauskas himself the auteur or sole architect of politics in this state.

He has become a political brand, not known as the Premier, nor Mr Malinauskas, but known by almost everyone as Mali. This is normally political gold.

It reflects a rare degree of voter warmth towards him as a leader, as born out by that staggering poll last month.

It also suggests a significant degree of trust, whereby if “Mali” has got his hands on something, you’ll know he’s got the state’s best interests at heart.

It’s for this reason that so many federal Labor candidates used his image, not that of Anthony Albanese, when they went to the polls in May.

The problem then becomes that when he as Premier is not directly involved in something, it lacks the gravitas and weight that we have been trained to associate with his involvement.

Meaning that, when he finally fronted the cameras on Tuesday with an emergency response plan to the algal bloom crisis, it invited deserved ridicule from people like veteran journalist Matt Abraham: “Emergency response to emergency that started four months ago”. Matt’s wry sentiment was in line with public opinion, with so many people now demanding answers as to what precisely the government has been doing.

While there are huge shortcomings with the assistance the state has provided to struggling ocean-dependent businesses, I would give Susan Close some cover here for the job she has been doing.

I know that she has been working around the clock on this issue and I say this not as some Labor shill, but because I have had Liberal-aligned rural mayors praising her to me for the effort she is bringing to the task.

The real laggards on all this are those useless sods in Canberra.

It takes a special kind of political ineptitude to visit a state with a cheque for $14 million and for everyone to tell you to go and get stuffed.

That’s what happened to Environment Minister Murray Watt on Monday.

And deservedly so.

Deputy Premier Susan Close has won fans behind the scenes for her work on the problem. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Remember, this is the bloke who wouldn’t even meet with the nation’s peak marine scientists pleading for research funding into the bloom months ago.

The man who this time last week wasn’t even coming to SA himself but was sending some cardigan-clad bureaucrat instead.

Then, when he relented under political pressure and was shamed into visiting, spent a few minutes tut-tutting for the cameras in front of a dead fish, gave us all a lecture about why this wasn’t technically a natural disaster, and made some incomprehensible points about how the bloom might not have been in commonwealth but state waters. What a joke.

And again, what the hell have all our federal Labor MPs been doing on this issue?

The one issue that has dominated local headlines since they all swanned back into office in May?

I know all these people, speak to them all the time for radio and print, and I can tell you the number who have contacted me with any ideas at all for coverage of this issue or possible solutions. That number is: zero.

And as for poor old Murray Watt, let’s remember that it was he who led the charge against Scott Morrison over his Hawaiian jaunt mid-bushfires and his jarring defence that he doesn’t hold the hose, mate.

Creating the highest of benchmarks for mid-crisis travel by political leaders – and one which, in the eyes of many, Peter Malinauskas has now failed.

Originally published as Peter Malinauskas, Susan Close cop blame as Labor’s real useless sods go missing on SA algal bloom disaster | David Penberthy