Adelaide’s business elite heap praise on SA Labor leader Peter Malinauskas ahead of state poll

South Australia’s peak business organisations are offering glowing character references for Labor Leader Peter Malinauskas two weeks out from the state poll.

Peter Malinauskas with wife Annabel and kids Jack, Sophia and Eliza at Golden Grove. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

South Australia’s peak business organisations are offering glowing character references for Labor leader Peter Malinauskas just two weeks out from the March 19 state poll.

In a sign of business ambivalence toward Steven Marshall’s Liberal government – and its suspicion it may soon be working with a Labor leadership – key business organisations are openly talking up Mr Malinauskas as a credible alternative.

They include the state’s principal business organisation, Business SA which, while offering no formal endorsement of either leader, has made it clear its sees Mr Malinauskas as a safe pair of hands.

The comments reflect the Covid fatigue in South Australia, where many sectors – especially hospitality and tourism – became fed up with Mr Marshall’s preparedness to hand so much executive power to his chief medical officer and police commissioner.

Many of these organisations have historically been hostile to Labor but believe Mr Malinauskas, a former retail union boss and senior Right faction figure, can be trusted to look after jobs and the economy.

The comments are likely to upset Mr Marshall, reflecting the falling-outs he has had with some in the business community who have criticised his Covid management.

Business SA chief executive Martin Haese – a former Adelaide lord mayor once touted as a ­potential Liberal candidate for the federal seat of Adelaide – said he had known Mr Malinauskas for many years since his previous role managing the Rundle Mall shopping strip.

“As the independent voice for employers and business owners across South Australia, Business SA works closely with both the state government and opposition,” Mr Haese said.

“In all our dealings, we have found Peter Malinauskas to be consistently authentic, pragmatic and solutions-focused.

“Peter has engaged closely with Business SA and our members, where he has been keen to understand the key issues and priorities, willing to present and take questions at our events, and forthcoming with his vision for SA. We have noted and appreciated how proactive and accessible he and his team have been.”

Mr Malinauskas also received praise from the Australian Hotels Association, with state president David Basheer saying he held him in high esteem as a good listener who understood the industry.

“Peter has been a very consultative Opposition Leader who has made an effort to understand the issues facing our industry’s participants,” Mr Basheer said.

Business SA chief executive Martin Haese

AHA president David Basheer

“That includes both the smaller operators as well as the bigger players.

“We get a sense he understands and values the contribution hoteliers make to both the state’s economy, as major employers in a labour-intensive industry, but also our value to the community.

“It remains to be seen as a ­potential premier if he will take a more proactive stance on the easing of restrictions, but the timing of the pandemic may make that concern redundant.”

Treasurer Rob Lucas said no one in South Australia should consider Mr Malinauskas a safe option based on what Labor had already promised during the ­campaign.

“Mr Malinauskas’s reckless pre-election spending – racking up more than $3bn in promises in just over one week – is the single biggest risk to the state’s economy as we emerge from Covid, and will absolutely smash the budgets of struggling households and businesses through higher taxes, charges and levies,” Mr Lucas said.

“South Australian families and businesses aren’t stupid, they know we don’t have a lazy $3bn lying around to fund Mr Malinauskas’s crazy spending and that, ultimately, they’ll be the ones who will have to pay – either through increased water, power and ESL bills or by bringing back payroll tax for small businesses.”

The immediate past chief executive of the Master Builders Association, Ian Markos, said he was not surprised business was looking favourably at Mr Malinauskas after the way Mr Marshall had managed Covid.

Mr Markos took retirement last year after seven years running the MBA but made the snap decision to run for the upper house at the election with SA Best, Nick Xenophon’s former party, in large part in protest at Mr Marshall’s leadership during the pandemic.

“In my opinion he has not shown leadership throughout Covid,” Mr Markos said.

“He hasn’t really been around for the past two years and has left all the big decisions to the chief health officer and the police commissioner.

“Obviously in a pandemic there was a huge role for them but you also needed small business input, big business input, and at the end of the day it was the state’s elected leader who should have been making the decisions. Instead for the last two years we have been run by a policeman.”

Mr Markos said SA Best was promising to move a motion ending the state’s Covid emergency declaration when parliament first sits after the poll.

He said that since he signed on with SA Best he had held many meetings with small business owners who were “distraught” over the impact the Covid rules had had on their income and ­ability to retain staff.

“I am picking up a very strong sense that the Premier is in real trouble,” he said. “We have been run for too long by a faceless bureaucracy with no accountability.”