Coronavirus: Premier Steven Marshall calmly steers South Australia
South Australia has calmly coped with the coronavirus crisis thanks to a communications masterclass from its Premier, Police Commissioner and Chief Medical Officer.
While other states struggle with their messaging, South Australia is turning on a communications masterclass thanks to a cheek-by-jowl performance by its Premier, police commissioner and chief medical officer in helping the state negotiate the COVID-19 pandemic with relative calm.
As a result, South Australians continue to enjoy greater freedom of movement and association than residents of other states, with police still only vowing to take action against groups of 10 people or more in breach of social distancing rules.
And as Scott Morrison is lumbered with an unenviable cat-herding exercise managing eight state and territory leaders, the Prime Minister has privately lauded SA Premier Steven Marshall for never wavering from the federal script and providing not a single headache since the pandemic began.
As a management proposition, SA comes with a lower degree of difficulty than NSW and Victoria, thanks to its smaller population and more laid-back lifestyle. But Mr Marshall has harnessed these two qualities in urging South Australians to approach challenges with trademark civility.
Prior to this summer, criticisms were emerging of Mr Marshall’s subdued leadership style after much of last year was derailed by a protracted brawl over land tax reform.
Over summer, his unflappable approach has become a virtue as he responded to the bushfires by immediately cancelling his Christmas holidays and taking just two days off since December to focus first on the Kangaroo Island and Adelaide Hills blazes, and now the coronavirus.
Mr Marshall told The Australian he wanted to put composure at the centre of his management style during the pandemic.
“I understand that this is a very anxious period for many South Australians, but we are all rising to the challenge of defeating this virus and we will continue to plough on rolling out our strong plan with a real sense of calm,” he said.
“We are going to get through this by sticking together and supporting each other.
Mr Marshall has avoided the confusion seen in Victoria over school closures or couples visiting each other, and with none of the chaotic blame-shifting of NSW over cruise ships and confusion over law and order.
He has steadfastly backed the federal position on schools remaining open, and explained the logic behind that well in his many media appearances.
He has been ably supported by a strong media performer in his state’s Chief Medical Officer, Associate Professor Nicola Spurrier, whose daily briefings have been clear and easy to understand, and laconic Police Commissioner Grant Stevens, who has avoided any of the heavy-handedness seen in the eastern states.
As a result, the state’s lockdown is less onerous than in NSW and Victoria, with SA Police only threatening to fine people in groups of 10 or more, rather than two, provided that these groups are using common sense and practising social distancing.
Mr Stevens said this week he hasn’t needed to go further than that because South Australians have not acted like the crowds at Bondi in Sydney and St Kilda in Melbourne.
He has also resisted calls for a hard closure of the SA border, saying the existing arrangements, which allow freight and families and workers to enter at police discretion, were working adequately.
“Through that process we are capturing a significant number of people who are travelling into SA,’’ he said on Friday.
“The measures we have seen in other jurisdictions would present some significant challenges for us here if the principle was to entirely shut down the state because we have so many roads into SA that the implications from a resourcing point of view would be substantial.’’
One government source said the government and combined state leadership’s strategy was “to make life feel as normal possible at a totally abnormal time”.
“As things currently stand we don’t want people to feel like total prisoners, like they’re under siege,” the source added.
“We are quite happy for people to go to the beach, get out for a walk, go fishing or kayaking, as long as they obey all the social-distancing requirements and don’t do it in large numbers.”
Mr Marshall’s communications strategy has been helped by a united team of MPs, and while some Opposition MPs have been nitpicking and negative over government policy, Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas has been more level-headed than others interstate.
Mr Malinauskas has resisted pressure to demand the Marshall government implement a hard lockdown, and has also defended the focus on shielding the economy, saying the impact of the virus on household budgets could be as deadly for some families as the health threat.
More Coverage
Labor’s migration target to be overshot by 100,000
With arrivals outstripping expectations and departures less than anticipated, economists and immigrations experts say Labor will oversee a net migration intake as high as 495,000.
How retail umpire mediated a row while on Ukraine mercy mission
Food Code’s Chris Leptos spends his days arbitrating disputes between suppliers and supermarkets, but after hours he’s part of an international group helping to ease the plight of Ukrainians.