On Saturday, the Marshall Government went the way of the dodo with a significant swing to Labor on the 2pp. Interestingly, both Liberal and Labor commenters, Nicolle Flint (Lib-SA) and Amanda Rishworth (Lab-SA), on the Sky News post election analysis agreed with each other that it was the loss of the V8 Supercars to Adelaide in 2020, which was the dominant and deciding factor. On his show on Sunday night, Paul Murray also agreed – “it was the Supercars wot dun it,” he asserted.
I could not help but be a tad sceptical that a car race, which in its final year (2020) had attracted only 206,000 fans over the four days made all the difference, considering what the entire country, including South Australia, had been through in the last two years.
To me, the rationale for the election loss seems all too convenient and, besides, if Marshall’s polling through the last two years could be put down to one issue, surely he would have had enough nous to do a back flip and ensure the race returned to Adelaide post pandemic? Was this issue, as Murray and those South Australian HoRs were contending, really front and centre in this election?
InDaily, an Adelaide independent on-line news site reported 7/9/21 that a statewide poll conducted by Dynata, an on-line market research company, in July, for The Australia Institute – an organisation not known for leaning “right” – had the Liberals in front 51-49 on the 2pp, with health reported as the ‘…dominant issue of the campaign’ and noted that the polling ‘…mirror[ed] the last statewide poll taken in SA, a Sunday Mail-YouGov poll published in March.’
Nowhere in the polling reported by InDaily did the V8 Supercars decision make it as a concern of electors. In fact, InDaily noted that ‘[T]he Australia Institute’s SA Director Noah Schulz-Byard said the polling suggested “voters can expect a strong campaign with a focus on health [38%], the economy [24%] and climate change [(12%] over the next six months…In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, health is shaping up as the key political battleground in South Australia.”‘
While Peter Malinauskas, the SA Opposition Leader, did at the time respond to Marshall’s Supercars decision saying he would lobby to have the event returned to Adelaide, from the published polling the issue seemed to have lost any major electoral sting at least in 2021.
On Murray’s Monday night Sky News show Marshall’s loss was again examined. Yes, the Supercars still held first place for the loss according to Murray, but Murray’s interlocutors held that Marshall had taken a back seat both to his CHO and Police Commissioner in the management of the pandemic, which didn’t help his leadership credentials.
On Laura Jayes’ Sky News morning show on Monday, The Advertiser’s David Pemberthy asserted that, unlike the other Australian State Opposition Leaders, all of whom had lost their jobs during the pandemic because of their criticism of their respective Premier’s Covid decision-making, Peter Malinauskas had remained in lockstep with Marshall throughout; so no mention of the Supercars there. Refreshing, however, was the willingness of Pemberthy (and those Murray guests later in the day) to offer a wider analysis of factors for Marshall’s election loss.
Back on Monday of last week, the Prime Minister was at Gosford on a Paul Murray “Pub Test” Show. At the end of the show, Murray turned to his trio of Sky contributors – Joe Hildebrand, Chris Kenny and Mark Latham – for a precis of the PM’s performance. Murray’s last question was directed to Latham:
‘There are people in this room who have lost their jobs because of the vaccine mandates. We live in this scenario where a teacher can’t go to work but an un-vaccinated parent can go to teacher-parent night; we’ve passed the point where, if it ever mattered, it doesn’t matter now. Do you think it’s too dangerous for the Prime Minister to start to speak against this stuff because of the Twitter stuff, or is there an untapped group of people who go, “you know what?, this is over!”‘
Latham replied that in NSW there is a ‘massive teacher crisis with 7000 teachers either sacked or stood down,’ causing shortened classes and reduced hours of teaching. Police, fireys, ambos, SES and nurses are in the same position; ‘it’s time to lift these mandates,’ Latham said. Is the situation in other parts of the country, different from in NSW, mayhap?
Given Latham’s response, it was interesting that no questions at the “Pub Test” dealt directly with this appalling state of affairs. Of two questions about the pandemic that were asked, one referred, though indirectly, to how the mandates had affected workers, but focused on Federal-State relations and governments being able to work together; which gave Morrison an opportunity to reiterate his mea culpa comments at his National Press Club speech of a couple of weeks ago, that his job was to get agreements through the national cabinet, which he had done in all 67 meetings he had chaired. Though he did not state it, those agreements included utilising the powers of the States to force Australians into vaccine mandates.
But that Murray’s question could countenance the possibility that it may be ‘too dangerous’ for a Liberal Prime Minister to address what is by far the worst of government excess because of the left wing twitter mob, rather than reach out to the thousands of sacked or stood down Australians who just want to go back to work freed from government mandated health orders – a position that may actually assist Morrison to win the next election – Murray is suggesting that, rather than Morrison find what little inner Liberal values of freedom and individual liberty he has, and spin his wheels in a major government U-turn on the mandates, those weak kneed Covid “screamers” on twitter maybe the bigger risk to Morrison’s re-election. “Hello,” V8 Supercars!
By telling the people what really mattered to them, rather than taking notice of what they said mattered, does the politicians’ and their hangers-on’ credibility no good. When considered in relation to the destruction to the country that the pandemic controls have caused, convenient, I’d say, are hashtags and V8s. They, like Horatio, should take seriously Hamlet’s advice: “There are more things in heaven and earth…”
It’s the mandates, nothing more.
Governments, state and Federal, will continue to be sacked until the mandates are removed.
The COVID insanity doesn’t seem to attend. All first responders working for Ambulance Victoria have all had their three jabs (or will have to have the third one) and now they must take a RAT test before they start work. They are also required to ask patients if they are willing to take a RAT test before being placed in an ambulance, even though it’s not mandatory, nor will it in any way affect patient transport. What’s the bloody point of all this?
Trust The Ponds Institute, a leading Australian think tank.
It was Rishworth and Flint’s “Let’s Go Brandon” moment. Comedy gold.
And, amazingly enough, it involved racing cars.
What are the odds? 😀
Health was the major issue and Marshall let ambulances drive around for years with anti-government slogans scrawled all over them, essentially mobile billboards for Labor. Weak as piss.
Wait, what? The only way that can even remotely make sense, is if the dickhead cancelled the race because of ‘climate change’. In other words, the race cancellation was just the latest manifestation of the SFLs going woke.
Otherwise, why would anyone give a fuck?
You’ve got to admit V8 Supercars are pretty sik.
Possibly not as sick as the Lieboral Party.
Health was the major issue and Marshall let ambulances drive around for years with anti-government slogans scrawled all over them, essentially mobile billboards for Labor. Weak as piss.
Quite so. The government owned ambulances were being used to spread electioneering slogans for the ALP during the election campaign, and the Marshall Government did nothing to stop this. I lost count of how many ambulances I saw which had slogans scrawled over them.
Marshall was a left wing Liberal who excluded the Right of the Liberal Party from his Ministry. He was a narrow factional player.
He spent much of the campaign (which overlapped with the Adelaide Festival) turning up at arts events where he was never going to get a vote.
I was at an event the day after the election at which Marshall attended and received glowing praise from arts industry people who never would have voted for him, but applauded him because he slung more taxpayer funds towards them. I noticed that David Marr joined in the applause.
Marshall was a bit like Ted Ballieu in Victoria. Ted was a less than one term wonder who didn’t have a clue, and also appointed himself as Arts Minister.
The SA Liberal Party deservedly will spend at least another 12 years in the wilderness.
SA will continue to decline economically.
Supercars?
clutching at straws arent they? they are still on at Tailem Bend outside Adelaide. Most real race tracks arent in the city, and perhaps with the exception of Albert Park the street circuits are always a compromise.
V8 Super cars burn sugar! So get off the climate change stuff.
As for the Liberal loss (thrashing) in SA get ready for many more Liberal thrashings. Ever since they threw Abbott under the Turdbull bus the Liberals have been on a downward spiral. The more woke and the greener they get the more members run away.
Nett zero will be the end of the coalition in the upcoming election, I still can’t believe the Liberal Party have become Labor Lite and are now moving towards the Greens.
Not much hope for Australia IMO.
yarpos says:
March 24, 2022 at 2:11 pm
Supercars?
clutching at straws arent they? they are still on at Tailem Bend outside Adelaide. Most real race tracks arent in the city, and perhaps with the exception of Albert Park the street circuits are always a compromise.
There are many “street” race tracks around the world and they are very popular. Lots of them are like the Gold Coast where the track is set up in a week prior to the event and taken away into storage in a week after. Formula E like them throughout Europe.
Big_Nambas says:
March 24, 2022 at 2:17 pm
…..where the track is set up in a week prior to the event and taken away into storage in a week after.
Off topic but that’s not even close to accurate. A street circuit takes no less than three months to erect (exceptional) and two months to dismantle. And those time frames are very conservative depending on location, available workforce and intricacy. Like assembling a gigantic scalextric set.
There are tens of thousands of items that have to be transported to the site including concrete barriers (plus the catch fences), pedestrian fencing and pathways, cabling, generators wired in, pedestrian bridges, ticketing booths, vehicle pits to be constructed, driver facilities, media facilities, grand stands, catering areas (both public and corporate), medical facilities, portable lighting and a host of other infrastructure. And that’s before we get into the amusement areas, club displays areas…..
It takes the a workforce of 25,000 four months to put together the Singapore F1, as an example. The Adelaide V8 Supercars (and the F1 GP before it) had a relatively ‘simple’ operation due to much of the work being done in the parklands and it was still 4-5 months construction and 2-3 months removal as the workforce was nowhere near the size utilised in Singapore.
…even to those possessing the most feeble of myopic abilities.
There are no men or women of caliber to be sighted within range of the ACT …. let alone among the natives of outlying stations to possess personnel displaying intelligent fore sight.
From all quarters of the continent we can only observe Labor milk sops of the hind sighted variety.
Though I did hear a whisper that a keen eyed Katter was spotted creeping thru the Canberra jungle…. on the odd occasion
Just saying what’s on the teleprompter.
Excellent piece BBS.
Here are some of my opinions and apologies about the rant…
Point 1. I think the SA election result can be attributed to a number of factors. But first, let me preface everything by saying that whenever the Liberals trash their base, the base walks, in fact it runs. And this is precisely what the federal Liberals have been doing since September 2015 and, without exception, what every state Liberal government does…..if they’re ever lucky enough to gain power because now, even in opposition, they’re simply Labor lite. This Labor lite formula is guaranteed, it’s like a template, there must be one at Liberal headquarters. Has anybody told them that the template is flawed?
Point 2. The Liberal party, as they did in 2013, gain power by appealing to centre-right and conservative voters and then what do they do? They spit on them. Everyday we’re spat upon and ridiculed, only last month an unholy cabal constituting Dave Sharma, Katie Allen, Fiona Martin and Trent Zimmerman crossed the floor to vote against the Religion Freedom bill. I felt I’d been stabbed. Last week I received a text from Sharma’s office asking if I’d help in the forthcoming election. Yeah right. I ignored the text (for the record, I’ll be voting LDP). Sharma can fuck off. He’s a disgrace. He should be in the Greens. I won’t be helping the Liberals in any way, shape or form.
Point 3. The Labor doesn’t trash on its base the way the Liberals do. Period.
Fact 4. The result in SA last week was a self induced disaster. Once again and I know I sound like a broken record however the inept, supine, spineless, vacuous Green lite Liberals have only themselves to blame for the disastrous electoral result. For four years Marshall ran a soft lite Green government, and a so called right of centre party introduced late term abortion and euthanasia laws. Unbelievable. That’s a super way to appeal to the base. Now, Labor’s leader, Peter Malinauskas , is both charismatic and articulate…but he’s also socially conservative and of the Labor right faction. Many conservative voters would be drawn to that. I’d prefer that. Given the choice between Marshmallow and Malinauskas, I’d choose the latter. Malinauskas spoke against the late term abortion laws. The Marshall government was plagued by scandals and it managed to alienate business….yep….a Liberal government managed to piss off small and medium sized business. That there, along with abortion and euthanasia, is a clear window into just how much the Liberal party in SA has strayed from being the party of Robert Menzies.
Fact 5. And to Covid. Marshmallow outsourced Covid to his moronic Chief Health Officer, who made Kerry Chant look normal. And yes, I believe mandates have a role in the government’s loss, but there are a myriad of reasons that contributed Marshmallow’s loss, from Covid mismanagement to far-left social policies to destroying relationships with business, to purging Christians from the party base and on and on it went.
Fact 6. The Liberals in SA won’t gain power again for at least another two decades.
Correct, Cassie. As a former Adelaide resident, I think there is only one way the LNP will regain power in SA: strong, principled leadership. This Marshall clown seemed to get his talking points from the loony left on Twitter.
He was elected because the electorate was exhausted by Labor’s decades of incompetence (not to mention the SA gerrymander, which allowed the ALP to rule for years with far less than 50% of the vote).
In SA or anywhere else, there is no-one with cooee of the party leadership who wants to give a voice to the voiceless or who believes in small government and low taxes. They’re all big government morons who believe in nothing but the perks of power.
That is why the LNP’s primary vote is so low — lack of principles. Believe it or not, there are votes in principles, but only if they are proudly and confidently expounded and explained to voters, who have deserted the LNP for minor parties.
Labor has principles — socialism and poverty for all — but at least the ALP has them, unlike the hopeless, embarrassing Liberals.
Adding to Cassie’s clue batting of the SFL’s.
If people want Labor policy they’ll vote Labor, because at least they know what they’re getting.
Sharpening the knives for the federal election. I hope scomo and the rest of the scum are loosing sleep.
Was that the idiot who said not to touch the football if it was kicked into the crowd, ’cause Covid?
Cassie, Tom and 123andBush — standing ovation — I happen to live in the electorate ‘represented’ by the Julia Banks of Reid, the floor-crossing Fiona Martin – she will lose this seat there is absolutely no doubt, invisible and useless her loss will be our gain.
With Cassie’s points I would concur, and then add the understated and less understood problem of Convergence.
As politics has moved into the realm of marketing, both major parties (in fact all around the world) have “targetted” the same demographic with the same “buy the votes” mentality. There is no way to grace such thinking with the label “political philosophy.”
As a natural and logical consequence:
a) the policies follow (instead of lead) the current talking points, meaning that lobbyists and the media drive the entire political discourse
b) MP’s character and conduct, which would be good indicators of how leadership might handle an unexpected crisis (a pandemic, the loss of major money-spinners, energy problems etc.) is trashed without any qualms – the end of real accountability
and therefore
c) gradually (sometimes quickly) the parties and their policies look extraordinarily similar – barely a cigarette paper separates them.
Then the gerrymander kicks in so that minor parties and independents are shut out of the system or bought off as in Victoria where Fiona Patten’s “Reason” (ha!) Party has had two major wins recently: decriminalisation of prostitution and approaching decriminalisation of drug use (unless we fight it during the campaign for the November election).
It was health system, mandates, conservative principles, spending priorities & lack of leadership. Nothing to do with a car race.
Of the two the Labor leader is actually considerably more conservative, that’s how crazy the uniparty has gotten.
Marshall hasn’t been in charge for 18 odd months now, he handed over control to the Police. The health minister was such a fool almost no-one knows his name, they couldn’t even have him on TV.
The hospitals and ambos are under strain from a flood of vaccine injuries; Liberals completely failed in their original goal to sort out the mess Labor left last time.
Marshalls big wins were late pro term abortion and euthanasia which the new more conservative Labor leader opposed. He sent dozens and dozens of cops to intimidate conservative voters that protested. Looks like ACL have toppled a Liberal member in a very conservative electorate that also supported this abortion law.
In the end it was entirely appropriate that Marshall was aborted and euthanized from the party.
Now, the new Labor Premier of SA is doubling down on the Civid restrictions and panic.
https://www.reignitedemocracyaustralia.com.au/sa-labor-government-wasting-no-time/
Cassie,
Thank you.
As I have. The enthusiastic young Liberal candidate hoping to oust the execrable Labour acolyte and triumphant supporter of every single thing Tyrant Dan proposed to keep us all safe needs to think long and hard about the question I posed to him a week ago and that failed to even address in his response. What will you do in the next eight months to win back your previously committed Liberal base voters such as myself?
BBS, Cassie and all the commenters on this thread have nailed it. Sleepwalking to disaster. If not annihilation.
Eyrie @ 5.08pm.
The South Aussies are going to get it good and hard. Which is apparently preferable to Green Labor Lite.
I consider Morrison’s behaviour
An utter betrayal. I m taking this to heart. I won’t ever vote for him and his acolytes again. I didn’t vote for state dictat. Either the restrictions go or Morrison is toast
Yet the only times I ever had the misfortune to see that blithering imbecile Marhsmallow on the television in the last two years, he was screeching hysterically about bat flu.
As for fatso Murray and the removal from Adelaide of his beloved V8 supercars being the deciding factor in the recent election, it’s almost unbelievable that such staggering stupidity could pass for serious political analysis. Actually, I take that back, it’s entirely unsurprising. What a joke.
“Bar Beach Swimmersays:
March 24, 2022 at 6:16 pm
Cassie,
Thank you.”
Thank you. Please post more threads.
Jupes:
Otherwise, why would anyone give a fuck?
To paraphrase Ole Blue Eyes; “excuses, I’ve got a few.”
I’ll be voting LDP). Sharma can fuck off. He’s a disgrace. He should be in the Greens. I won’t be helping the Liberals in any way, shape or form.
Well said Cassie.
Sharma is not much better than Turdbull.
“All first responders working for Ambulance Victoria … now they must take a RAT test before they start work.”
Myself and two close mates had been out together & we all came down with symptoms Sunday. All tested positive via PCR testing. I’ve done half a dozen RATs this week all returned negative.
So we were either all false PCR positives or RATs are a waste of time.
Peter Malinauskas was mentored by Dan Andrews, I believe.
Hence the tactic of co-opting the ambos to campaign for him.
I made a point of removing the slogans from my ambulance at the start of my shifts. A very few others did the same, but most were duped into believing they were trying to do something good.
Great news. WA, SA who’s next for destruction? The Feds? We can only hope.
I’m in Marshall’s electorate and everything in Cassie’s post rings 100% true. It was the first time I did a non vote. And I will repeat that at the federal election.
Conservative values, personal freedoms, pro small and medium business (not big corporations like mine who have done awfully well the last two years as opposition has been destroyed and closed), tax relief, debt management and anything else the Liberals used to stand for have been tossed aside. No more.
Have a look at what Australia/South Australia have gotten out of Liberal governments;
– near trillion dollar debt (Abbott took over and it was about $80B)
– gay marriage
– pro abortion laws
– pro euthanasia laws
– the greatest trampling of our individual freedoms possibly in the country’s history
– vax to work mandates in my industry (supply chain) and a lot of others
– the purchase of or order of somewhere in the order of 400M vaccines for a country of 26M
I’ve never felt more powerless as a voter. When someone gains my trust I’ll start voting again.
And the Liberals still just accept this or instead think they can benefit from doing it. Remember when the Mincing Poodle engaged GetUp for help. Morons, literally morons!
And lastly, Pyne and Turnbull were quick to stick the boots in when Cardinal Pell and Archbishop Wilson were were found “guilty” in their respective kangaroo courts but said nothing when charges were quashed and they were released as free men.
BTW, Pyne put his daughter through the same sacramental program as mine.
I can’t believe he denied me the right to vote him out.
“And lastly, Pyne and Turnbull were quick to stick the boots in when Cardinal Pell “
Not just Pyne and Turnbull but also Scumbag Morrison….and Christian Porter. Remember that within days of Pell’s 7-0 acquittal in 2020, Porter, then A-G, quickly moved to release the RC’s findings in an attempt, I believe, to further embarrass and smear Pell.
Given what was done a year later to Porter by the same suspects (Milligan and co), I wonder if he feels any remorse.
“… I wonder if he feels any remorse.”
A politician? Feel remorse? Only about losing an election before qualifying for a pension, or missing out on a seat on the board somewhere…
The Marshmallow lost because he had no conservative principles AND outsourced law making to the Police Commissioner and the Chief Health Officer. Nobody deserves to be reelected after that.
If the Supercars was really such a money spinner, there was nothing stopping Business SA (the chamber of commerce) from being the promoter themselves. I’m certain Adelaide City Council wouldn’t have prevented them from doing it privately