Analysis: Who came out on top in Premier Peter Malinauskas and Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia’s debate?
Peter Malinauskas was uncharacteristically stern as he faced his new political opponent - but did anyone land a fatal blow? Read our debate breakdown and see who came out on top.
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For a fledgling leader facing off against a popular Premier, Vincent Tarzia mounted a spirited fight but was always going to lose.
Peter Malinauskas began the debate looking uncharacteristically grumpy and stern, as if the self-confessed “pretty average footy player” was steeling himself for a big on-field hit.
It never came and it probably was never going to. Mr Malinauskas won the debate, despite Mr Tarzia’s valiant, assertive and generally polished performance.
Mr Malinauskas was optimistic and bold about action to develop the state economically for future generations, while Mr Tarzia lacked any policy ammunition to set an agenda beyond censuring his rival.
Opposition leaders typically gain an advantage in pre-election debates simply by being able to appear as a credible alternative, on the same stage as the incumbent.
But the odds were always stacked against Mr Tarzia, despite his indefatigable attempts to hold Mr Malinauskas to account over broken promises on ramping and hydrogen.
Mr Tarzia won the Liberal leadership just seven months ago.
His party is plumbing historic lows, in terms of MP numbers, and even Liberal loyalists are deeply pessimistic about prospects of victory at a state election on March 21 next year.
Mr Malinauskas is a difficult opponent, because he blends charisma, optimism and a willingness to defy Labor stereotypes in the interests of state development.
He is prepared to discard past loyalties to further this agenda – witness his thinly veiled criticism this week of the Weatherill Labor government’s urban growth boundary, that he axed to open up land for 61,000 homes.
Both leaders rehearsed their lines in parliament during the past week.
The debate was a neat summary of current state issues but did not produce either a zinger line or a damaging gaffe.
A key take-out message for Mr Tarzia was that his party has plenty of policy development and release work to do, if he is to effectively buttress his cute opening line that “Labor is creating another class of forgotten people here in South Australia”.
‘Tough call’: Intense debate over building homes on prime farmland
State Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia is wary of new plans to lift boundaries stopping urban sprawl into prime SA farming land, leaving open the prospect of fighting more contentious targeted regions.
His comments follow farmers voicing outrage about the recently released 30-year master plan for Adelaide, that if passed by parliament would allow homes to be built on key food production land particularly around Murray Bridge and northern Adelaide.
While Mr Tarzia said the opposition was not opposed to changing the urban boundaries but “we certainly reserve the right to make sensible amendments to the government legislation regarding Environment and Food Production Areas” after a full briefing and consultation with stakeholders.
The new plan particularly targets Roseworthy, Two Wells, Murray Bridge, Victor Harbor and Goolwa.
Mr Tarzia confirmed his party’s stance after a fiery SA Leaders’ Debate at the SA Press Club on Friday where he accused Labor of creating “another class of forgotten people” with a lack of support for farmers and a “new wave of homelessness” among single, older women.
He criticised the government for failing to fix the lack of housing for South Australians and claimed no homes had been built on four key land releases in Hackham, Sellicks Beach, Dry Creek and Concordia since they were announced by the state government.
Premier Peter Malinauskas called on Mr Tarzia to release the Liberal Party’s policies and defended the government’s record on housing, saying it was busy building water pipelines and infrastructure on land that would soon see thousands more homes built.
“Of course the land released yesterday doesn’t have a house built on it tomorrow,” he said, saying there was a complex process to readying it for development.
“We are now releasing thousands of acres of land including of course the policy announcement we made this week on the Greater Adelaide Regional Plan, again, not shirking the tough decisions.”
He said lifting the urban growth boundary was a “tough call” but “we’ve got to have a government that can make the tough calls if you want to see change, otherwise its status quo.”
Property Council SA executive director Bruce Djite said it was important that Mr Tarzia “lays out a clear, concise and ambitiousvision for how to address the housing crises”. “Industry needs certainty, seeding uncertainty by moving the goal posts is one of the key things that affects housing prices,” Mr Djite said.
Promises of fixing ramping at the state’s hospitals and delivering the hydrogen jobs plan along with lower power prices were also targeted during the debate.
The Premier conceded hospital ambulance ramping was being hampered by new hospital beds still being built and older patients clogging the system.
But he said ambulance response times, more ambulance stations and hospital beds were coming online and the federal government needed to step up to provide more aged care facilities for those caught in hospitals with nowhere to go.
In terms of power prices, Mr Tarzia said the opposition would dig in behind Peter Dutton and the federal opposition if they won the upcoming federal election to support the push for nuclear power.
Mr Malinauskas said he was “totally agnostic” about nuclear energy but would not support the Dutton plan as research – including from the CSIRO – showed it would make power more expensive.
Banish City of Churches tag: It’s time for Adelaide to grow up
Paul Starick
Adelaide is still lazily branded the “City of Churches” by the occasional interstate commentator, who likely has never set foot in South Australia.
In fact, our state capital has been renowned for more than a decade for the spectacular Adelaide Oval redevelopment.
Cricket fans from the world’s most populous country, India, flock to be pictured in front of the Sir Donald Bradman Pavilion – named for the sport’s greatest-ever player.
But it is the return of footy to the Oval from 2014 after a $535m redevelopment that has changed the narrative about Adelaide.
Right from that first season, AFL fans and commentators have enthused about the spectacular redevelopment redefining the city.
Even AFL chief Andrew Dillon in 2024 said the “great thing” about SA hosting Gather Round was basing it around Adelaide Oval, which he branded an “iconic venue” that was “brilliantly situated”.
Premier Peter Malinauskas on Friday morning observed the sense of pride most South Australians feel about the Adelaide Oval redevelopment.
Adroitly and accurately, Mr Malinauskas linked this to the reborn Riverbank precinct, the area around the Oval, Festival Centre, Adelaide Railway Station, Parliament House and, now, Festival Plaza.
Mr Malinauskas was launching designs for Adelaide’s first skyscraper, the proposed 160m, $600m second tower at Festival Plaza to be developed by Walker Corporation.
The first tower has proved wrong critics of many years standing, by attracting people to a plaza that was previously a barren desert of semi-interesting “sculptures”.
“So having Adelaide’s first skyscraper immediately adjacent to the current Festival Tower, that is a postcard building, matters for our city. Not just for the people that will work here. It matters for the city as a whole,” Mr Malinauskas said.
“All of us, every single South Australian that has had the chance to sit on the left-hand side of the plane as you fly into Adelaide Airport and look out the window – all of us feel pride when we see Adelaide Oval with the parklands and our beautiful city.
“But we also need a postcard picture of buildings: architecturally modern, befitting a city that is going places, and the design and the release of the images that we have today, I think speaks to that.
“This speaks to a state that is going places, that is, it speaks to a state that has progress at its heart, with a modern city that is growing up quite literally. That’s something to be proud of. That’s something to be excited about.”
Walker Corporation chief executive officer David Gallant outlined plans for a laneway connecting the railway station to King William Rd, running past the first Plaza tower and the proposed second.
This will include hospitality and retail businesses. An objective is to connect the new office towers with the parliament buildings, creating a mix of modern and heritage architecture in the manner of London. “That’s going to be a place where you can actually stop and sit, have a coffee, and sit in the realms of Old Parliament House and new Parliament House,” Mr Gallant said.
Most importantly, the ongoing redevelopment has attracted people and enlivened an otherwise tired and inaccessible quarter of the city. Coupled with the Oval, it has transformed it into the city’s epicentre.
The vision of successive governments of enlivening the Torrens Riverbank is, finally, being fulfilled after many years of indecision and half-hearted proposals.
Mr Malinauskas is right to be bewildered at a myopic resistance that “wouldn’t want to allow tall skyscrapers in a growing city”.
At the resurgent Festival Plaza, Adelaide finally has a connection between the spectacular Oval redevelopment and the CBD.
This precinct is now the signature feature of our capital. Forget the City of Churches, Adelaide is defined by the Oval and its surrounds.
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Originally published as Analysis: Who came out on top in Premier Peter Malinauskas and Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia’s debate?
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