- Adelaide 500 on track for December return
- Malinauskas sworn in as Premier
- Libs face cabinet wipeout after election disaster
- Malinauskas calls for bipartisanship on COVID policy
- One Nation in the hunt for Upper House seat
- PM congratulates Malinauskas on victory, downplays federal implications
- Russia, Ukraine fight for critical city of Mariupol
- ‘Gutted’ Crows regroup after Freo loss
Adelaide 500 on track for December return
The organiser of Supercar racing in Australia says it is looking forward to working with the Malinauskas Government to bring the Adelaide 500 back to the city’s streets as a season finale in December following Labor’s win in the South Australian election.
Labor leader Peter Malinauskas vowed to bring the popular event back to the streets of Adelaide in a pre-election promise.
The Adelaide 500 traditionally opened the Supercars season but the long-standing event was axed during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic amid financial concerns.
The race could now return as the season finale, with December 1-4 flagged as the dates for this year’s mooted event.
“We congratulate Peter Malinauskas and his team on their victory in the South Australian election,” Supercars chief executive Shane Howard said.
“We now look forward to working together to deliver the Adelaide 500 on the streets of Adelaide in December in what will be a spectacular season finale.”
The Adelaide 500 was last staged in February 2020, and its cancellation in October 2020 drew widespread outrage and sadness from the motorsport community.
As well as being a Supercars spectacle, the Adelaide 500 acted as a showcase for live music and entertainment at night once the racing stopped.
Malinauskas sworn in as Premier
South Australia’s 47th Premier Peter Malinauskas has been sworn-in after Labor’s decisive state election victory.
Malinauskas took the oath of office at Government House this morning.
Susan Close was sworn in as deputy premier and Stephen Mullighan as treasurer.
Malinauskas is yet to reveal other members of his cabinet, though most who served on his frontbench during opposition are expected to retain their roles.
With counting continuing, Labor looks set to hold at least 26 seats in the 47-seat House of Assembly and is leading in two others.
One still in doubt is that of outgoing Premier Steven Marshall who is trailing his Labor opponent Cressida O’Hanlon in Dunstan.
Marshall has indicated he intends to continue to serve as the local member if returned but has stepped down as Liberal leader.
Shortly before Monday’s ceremony, he also arrived at Government House to officially tender his resignation.
Marshall said he had spoken with Malinauskas on Sunday to again congratulate him on Labor’s victory.
“I hope that we can continue to work together in the best interests of South Australia,” he said.
“It’s in a very good position at the moment but there’s still much work to be done.”
The Liberals should retain 14 or 15 seats but are likely to lose a number of ministers from the previous administration, including Deputy Premier Dan van Holst Pellekaan, Transport Minister Corey Wingard, Child Protection Minister Rachel Sanderson and possibly Primary Industries Minister David Basham.
The new parliament is likely to include five independents with Dan Cregan in the Adelaide Hills, Geoff Brock, who shifted to the seat of Stuart in the Mid North, Troy Bell in Mt Gambier and Fraser Ellis in Narungga, which takes in Yorke Peninsula, are all set to be returned.
In Finniss, independent Lou Nicholson leads Basham after the sitting MP was on the wrong end of a 19 per cent swing.
Libs face cabinet wipeout after election disaster
Outgoing Premier Steven Marshall remains locked in a tight battle to retain his eastern suburbs seat of Dunstan. Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily
The Liberal Party is staring down the prospect of half a dozen frontbenchers losing their seats, as the Electoral Commission begins its count of pre-poll and postal votes that will reveal the true extent of Labor’s weekend election rout.
The uniform swing towards Labor at Saturday’s state election saw them easily win the four marginal seats – Adelaide, Elder, King and Newland – they needed to form government and the southern suburbs seat of Davenport, with the landslide victory prompting defeated Premier Steven Marshall to announce his resignation as Liberal Party leader yesterday.
Labor will hold at least 26 Lower House seats in the next parliament, but that number could grow closer to 30 with several Marshall Government ministers in serious trouble.
Marshall’s future in Dunstan remains on a knife’s edge, with Labor’s Cressida O’Hanlon mounting a serious challenge to the outgoing Premier.
With 54.5 per cent of the vote counted, O’Hanlon is ahead 50.5 per cent to 49.5 per cent on two party preferred, despite Marshall saying on Sunday he “looks(s) forward to continuing to serve the people of Dunstan”.
Scrutineers have told InDaily that on the votes cast on Saturday, Marshall is behind by 143 votes on a two-party-preferred basis, with pre-polls and postal votes to come.
Meanwhile, the ABC is projecting that Transport Minister Corey Wingard will lose his seat of Gibson to Labor’s Sarah Andrews. The Labor candidate currently leads with 53.6 per cent of the two party-preferred vote with more than 53 per cent of ballots counted.
Minister for Innovation and Skills David Pisoni is also facing an uphill battle in Unley where the Greens garnered around 20 per cent of the first preference vote, putting Labor’s Ryan Harrison within striking distance at 49.7 per cent two party preferred.
The Liberals could also lose Primary Industries Minister David Basham in a massive boilover in the blue-ribbon seat of Finniss.
Energetic independent Lou Nicholson currently leads Basham 55.1 per cent to 44.9 per cent, although only 40 per cent of the vote has been counted. The swing against the Liberals comes amid discontent from the local branch about the state of health services in the Victor Harbor region, with several local Liberals prior to the election openly canvassing their intention to vote for Nicholson.
Lou Nicholson’s election night party on Saturday. Photo: supplied
The loss of any cabinet minister would only add further insult to injury for the Liberal Party after their Deputy Leader Dan van Holst Pellekaan and Child Protection Minister Rachel Sanderson were both turfed out on Saturday.
Education Minister John Gardner is also caught in an unexpected fight to hold onto his seat of Morialta where there has been a swing of nearly nine per cent against the government.
Gardner told InDaily on Saturday he was “cautiously confident” that pre-poll and postal votes would keep the eastern suburbs seat in Liberal hands, but he sits at just 50.5 per cent on two party preferred.
Peter Malinauskas’s majority could also be strengthened by a surprise victory in the seat of Waite, where election scrutineers say a complex series of preference flows have left only Labor’s Catherine Hutchisson and independent Heather Holmes-Ross in contention.
Liberal Alexander Hyde appears to be out of the race for Waite while incumbent independent Sam Duluk was not competitive with just 19 per cent of the first preference vote.
The Electoral Commission will today begin counting postal and pre-poll votes. According to ECSA, more than 210,000 people cast an early ballot and more than 170,000 applied for a postal vote.
Malinauskas calls for bipartisanship on COVID policy
The Premier-elect says his new Labor government will continue to back the health advice to deal with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic – and has called on the Liberal Opposition to offer him bipartisan support – as South Australia’s virus hospitalisations steadily climb.
After several days of reasonably high but largely stable infection numbers, Malinauskas said he would meet soon with senior health officials and Police Commissioner Grant Stevens on the issue.
“Throughout the pandemic, I backed in the health advice. That’s something we were consistent on,” he told reporters on Sunday.
“We intend to continue to follow the health advice but also make sure that is done in a way that is considered and tested against other variables.”
SA Health reported 3168 new virus infections on Sunday, the third fall in case numbers in as many days.
They had jumped to 4474 on March 17, a two-month high, after officials eased a range of coronavirus measures including the scrapping of all density limits.
But the number of people hospitalised with the virus has grown to 148 – up from 108 this time last week. There are seven people in intensive care and three people on a ventilator.
Malinauskas said he hoped the bipartisan approach to COVID-19 management in SA would be maintained under the new government.
“We never undermined the Marshall Government in terms of putting restriction in place,” he said.
“We intend to continue to follow the health advice, but also make sure that is done considered and tested against other variables.
“I don’t think this is an unreasonable expectation: the bipartisanship that has existed around COVID policy is something that should be maintained.”
He also said he intends to push ahead with amending the state’s Emergency Management Act, the legislation used to impose restrictions and other measures including mask mandates, lockdowns and density limits.
“The act is not fit for purpose for a global pandemic that lasts for two years,” he said.
One Nation in the hunt for Upper House seat
One Nation’s South Australia leader Jenifer Game (centre) with some of her One Nation candidates and a cardboard cutout of founder Pauline Hanson. Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation could win a seat in the South Australian Legislative Council to mark their first campaign in South Australia since 2006.
With around 55 per cent of ballots counted, One Nation has won roughly 4.2 per cent of the Upper House vote – beating out a glut of conservative minor parties including the Liberal Democrats (3.5 per cent), the revived Family First Party (3.2 per cent), the rebranded Australian Family Party (0.9 per cent) and the Nationals (0.7 per cent).
The fourth-placed result gives One Nation a seat quota of around 0.5 which will likely increase once preference flows are determined.
ABC chief election analyst Antony Green said the Queensland-based party looks the most probable to win the Upper House’s 11th seat.
“At this stage, nine seats are certain: four Labor, four Liberal and one Green,” he told ABC News on Sunday.
“Two seats remain in doubt, I think on the current numbers it’s likely that Labor will win a fifth seat and it looks like the last seat could well go to One Nation who are the highest polling of the smaller parties.
“That’ll deliver a change to the Upper House.”
A fifth seat for Labor would see party veteran Russell Wortley score an unlikely re-election to the Upper House after he backflipped on plans for retirement last month.
One Labor insider at the time described Wortley’s prospects of re-election in the fifth spot as “one in 100”.
If results were to go as the ABC projects, Labor would hold nine seats in the Legislative Council over the Liberals’ eight.
On the crossbench, the Greens and SA-Best would stay at two seats a piece along with a newly elected MLC from One Nation.
Sitting Advance SA MLC John Darley failed in his bid for re-election.
SA-Best, meanwhile, has been left in the political wilderness with their Upper House ticket attracting a paltry 1.1 per cent – more than 18 points down on their 2018 share.
The party’s sitting MLCs Connie Bonaros and Frank Pangallo will be up for re-election in 2026.
PM congratulates Malinauskas on victory, downplays federal implications
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has admitted Labor scored a “significant victory” at the South Australian election but has sought to emphasise the difference between state and federal leaders.
Premier Steven Marshall’s loss marked the first for any incumbent state or territory government during the pandemic, which is sure to ring alarm bells in Canberra with Morrison’s own leadership set to be put to the test within weeks with a federal election due in May.
Morrison congratulated Peter Malinauskas and his wife by phone.
“It’s a significant victory and they are elected with a very strong mandate to move forward with many issues that they’ve intended to take forward,” he told reporters in Sydney yesterday.
But the PM was quick to turn the focus on his own upcoming battle.
“What I know is that Anthony Albanese is not Peter Malinauskas,” Morrison said.
“There is a big difference between Anthony Albanese as the federal Labor leader and what we see in the performance of some of his state colleagues.”
But Wayne Swan, the former Labor treasurer and now ALP national president, said the SA result sends a clear message that voters have had enough of Liberal governments that are out of touch with their lives.
“Whilst the failures and mistakes of Premier Marshall played a big part, the person who has done the most damage to the Liberal Party brand in Australia in the last three years is Scott Morrison,” Swan said in a statement.
“This result should have all of his MPs trembling.”
Russia, Ukraine fight for critical city of Mariupol
Russian and Ukrainian forces are fighting for control of the port city of Mariupol, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeals to Israel for help in pushing back the Russian assault on his country.
In the latest in a series of appeals he has made for help from abroad, Zelenskyy on Sunday addressed the Israeli parliament by video link and questioned Israel’s reluctance to sell its Iron Dome missile defence system to Ukraine.
“Everybody knows that your missile defence systems are the best … and that you can definitely help our people, save the lives of Ukrainians, of Ukrainian Jews,” said Zelenskyy, who is of Jewish heritage.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has held numerous calls with both Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the conflict.
Mariupol has suffered some of the heaviest bombardment since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Many of its 400,000 residents remain trapped in the city with little if any food, water and power.
Capturing Mariupol would help Russian forces secure a land corridor to the Crimea peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Russia on Sunday called on Ukrainian forces to lay down their arms in Mariupol where Moscow said a “terrible humanitarian catastrophe” was unfolding.
“Lay down your arms,” Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, the director of the Russian National Center for Defence Management, said in a briefing distributed by the defence ministry.
“A terrible humanitarian catastrophe has developed. All who lay down their arms are guaranteed safe passage out of Mariupol.”
Mizintsev said humanitarian corridors would be opened out of Mariupol at 10am on Monday.
The city council said on its Telegram channel late on Saturday that several thousand residents had been “deported” to Russia over the past week.
‘Gutted’ Crows regroup after Freo loss
Prized recruit Josh Rachele celebrates one of his five goals on debut for the Crows yesterday. Photo: Michael Errey/InDaily
The Adelaide Crows have fallen agonisingly short of opening their AFL season with a win against Fremantle despite the five-goal heroics of gun recruit Josh Rachele.
The Dockers appeared gone 19 points down 12 minutes into the last quarter of Sunday’s Adelaide Oval fixture, but Fremantle surged with the last three goals for a stirring 11.17 (83) to 12.10 (82) triumph.
The difference would prove to be an errant pass in defence from Crows forward Riley Thilthorpe which ended with Fremantle’s Lachie Schultz converting his third goal on the run to give the Dockers a one-point lead.
Late drama ensued when with 10 seconds left, Adelaide’s Ben Keays launched a left-footer and the ball was headed for a goal, but Fremantle’s seven-gamer Heath Chapman got a desperate fist to the footy to prevent any score.
Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir told Chapman in the changerooms: “It was the best spoil I have seen.”
Crows coach Matthew Nicks said the result has left his players “gutted”.
“I hate losing and I feel for the group and I have probably given them a little bit too much of a spray,” Nicks said.
“But then I give them the love again … I know they have got ticker but I get so frustrated for them.”
But the Crows appear to have found a future star with goal-sneak forward Josh Rachele kicking five goals in his senior debut.
The 18-year-old, who was pick six in last year’s national draft, was instrumental in Adelaide’s comeback from a 25-point deficit at half-time.
– With AAP and Reuters
