by dedja » Fri Dec 08, 2023 10:51 am
The problem with politics has been years in the making, and isn’t confined to State or even Federal political parties, it’s manifested itself throughout democratic countries. SA has some unique quirks though.
There are few politicians will real conviction anymore; popularism is king.
Shit, I despised a lot of Howard’s policies, but at least he had some conviction. Same for Hawke, Keating and Whitlam. Fraser seemed to have that quality after he left parliament. We’ve had muppets since.
In SA, you had Hall and Dunstan. Imagine any political party today who could only get re-elected by virtue of an obscene gerrymander, but then have a leader who instigated reforms to remove it. That’s what Steele Hall did.
As we moved from the 70’s into the 80’s, there was the blip called David Tonkin, then the Bannon years. Yes, it ended in disaster, be he was unassuming and also someone of substance. Arnold was given the ruins and had no hope of holding power, so the longest period of Liberals in power began (since Playford), lasting just over 8 years. Brown was a genuine and decent leader, but rolled by the entitled Olsen, who was targeted from within and eventually self imploded. Kerin then picked up the mess to run it out until the Rann, and then Weatherill years.
This is where Labor honed their ‘electoral maximisation skills’. They skilfully targeted marginal seats at the expense of all the safe seats to cling onto power for 16 long years. Rann was a Dunstan wanna be, and Weatherill was just an opportunist.
What did the Liberals do during these 16 long years? Court the electorate? Provide a serious alternative? Nope, they spent most of their energy on a civil war that started in the 60’s. 2 generations of Halls, Chapmans, Evans, then throw in a Wilson and DeGaris, formed the basis of the warring factions. The ashes of these wars are still smouldering today.
Marshall was the Liberal’s attempt to move on from the factions, but he was hopeless, and an easy prey from a well oiled Labor electoral machine. Enter Malinauskas, a genuine popularist who cleverly touted his youth. Having his rig displayed for all at a pool certain helped.
The Liberals are trying to move on from all that past, but have no idea how to do it. Labor, if there is anything you can say about them, are disciplined and are a machine when it comes to engaging in electoral warfare. I’m not sure the next Liberal Premier is even in parliament yet.
So, in my opinion, this is why you have what you have today in SA politics, and it’s depressing.
It is better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt
