A poor Liberal government is still better than a Labor government

Local party volunteers have been busily working the branch membership lists to rope in ground support for the biggest day on the state political calendar.

But one branch president, it seems, had a slightly underwhelming pitch to the Liberal faithful.

In a recent missive to the Liberal branch members in Naracoorte, in the uber-safe seat of Mackillop, branch president Robert Bull “put the call out for assistance on polling day”, noting that when manning the booths, “many hands make light work”.

“I believe our party will do well in this state election, however, will need the support of some independents who are only independents due to their own [alleged] indiscretions and should remember how they became MPs,” he noted – a pointed reference to the likes of Troy Bell and Fraser Ellis, who are both facing separate court action, and Sam Duluk, who was found not guilty of basic assault last year.

Still, Bull was optimistic the crossbenchers would not just wield the balance of power, but back their former party in, enthusing: “If this happens, I think we can look forward to another term.”

After all, the crossbench could hardly deny the success of the Marshall Government’s first term… could they?

Except that Bull himself wasn’t exactly singing its praises.

“That’s not to say I think we have handled the last four years well – far from it,” he said.

“But in my opinion a poor Liberal government is still better than a Labor government.”

That’s a helluva re-election pitch there, Robert.

Still, he is adamant that the Government, poor as it may be, has been transformative.

“The public are not fools and despite how the media try to spin it and despite the COVID pandemic, the numbers speak for themselves and this Liberal Government has changed the direction of South Australia for the better,” he wrote.

“The COVID pandemic has definitely created an unusual and disruptive term of government for us, however a Liberal government with true Liberal values is the only way forward.”

He goes on to suggest the policy implications of those values, including removing “restrictions imposed by unelected bureaucrats” and an end to vaccine mandates.

“Anyone who wants to be vaccinated has had ample opportunity to be so… why are we discriminating against anyone who has made a choice not to be vaccinated?” he goes on.

Bull told InDaily he had “no comment” on his email, while his local MP Nick McBride similarly had nothing more to add.

Cregan’s pet project

Kavel incumbent Dan Cregan may be an independent these days, but he hasn’t been lonely – a black Labrador named Ted has been by his side ever since he first fired up his own Facebook page, after his former Liberal party slightly uncharitably locked him out of his old one.

The politically-savvy pooch has swiftly risen through the ranks of the Cregan camp, being variously described as the MP’s “campaign manager” and “chief political adviser” as he keeps up a high profile on the hustings.

Indeed, so high profile that he was featured in The Advertiser Foundation’s Christmas calendar of prominent South Australians and their pooches.

“Ted’s the kind of dog you can take anywhere and he loves people,” Cregan told the paper, affectionately adding that “he’ll eat anything – apricots, fritz, carp, tomatoes from the garden.”

“He eats too much and too quickly, but who hasn’t made that mistake?”

Ah, Ted, you old rascal.

But it seems the Libs – who have inexplicably turned the heat up on Cregan this week, despite the distinct prospect their former MP could hold the balance of power in the next parliament – didn’t take kindly to Cregan’s Ted Talk.

An insider tells InDaily that the Kavel incumbent “does not own a pet dog”, and that Ted instead belongs to, and is registered to, the MP’s girlfriend’s mother.

While Ted may consider such tactics a tad ‘ruff’, Cregan was not so much dogged as sheepish when asked about his pooch’s pedigree, saying only that ownership was “shared”.

Whether he’d be as willing to now share the balance of power with the Libs – who could themselves be in for a dog day afternoon on Saturday – remains to be seen.

Wrong Clemow

Cregan may have embraced man’s best friend (or his girlfriend’s mum’s best friend, at least) but he evidently made a vocal enemy at a recent Hills candidates forum.

A correspondent to the local paper, the Mount Barker Courier, relayed his take on the event, enthusing that the Lib hopeful Rowan Mumford “spoke well regarding his party’s vision for the Hills”, as did candidates for the Animal Justice Party and the Greens.

“I was impressed by the calibre of these three candidates,” the writer noted.

Less impressed though with Cregan, who he felt acted “as though this community meeting was below a person of his stature”.

The author was one ‘Matthew Clemow’, prompting the former Committee For Adelaide boss and high-profile director of Adelaide housing consultancy Social Policy Solutions to receive a somewhat odd email missive.

“Are you the Matt Clemow who had a go at Dan Cregan in today’s Courier newspaper?” his correspondent inquired.

“Congratulations. My letter (submitted on Friday) didn’t even make it past the editor” [who was, incidentally, CCed on the email].

He then signed off with a withering: “And it was way better than yours.”

Unfortunately, the author had picked the wrong Matt Clemow, who despite his past job as a Labor government adviser isn’t generally in the habit of writing angry letters to newspapers about state politicians.

The unsuccessful correspondent – with two failed emails to his name in less than a week – was evidently confusing Matt Clemow with Matthew Clemow, a distant relative with family ties to Liberal HQ and enough party pedigree to garner a thank-you from Georgina Downer in one of her recent concession speeches in the federal Hills seat of Mayo.

Amusingly, the latter Clemow’s own Twitter bio could have given the unfortunate emailer a hint: “No, not that Matt Clemow, the other one.”

Activist group has a mare

In an earlier Campaign Diary, we revealed a series of attacks on Mitcham mayor and independent Waite candidate Heather Holmes-Ross by Right-wing activist group Advance Australia, blaming her – among other things – for “stealing Christmas” (her council’s 2019 decision to axe its annual Carols, which as promptly reversed amid outcry).

Holmes-Ross says the move was instead made by council as a whole – and the Electoral Commission has now agreed, ordering the group cease publishing the claims and issue a retraction.

Which, according to Holmes-Ross they are yet to do, with no mention of the retraction on the Advance Australia Facebook page and, she says, the offending leaflets still being distributed through the electorate.

Hanson touches down

With the party she founded running its first concerted statewide campaign since 2006, Pauline Hanson jetted into Adelaide late yesterday – her first visit to SA since before the 2019 federal poll.

With borders closed due to COVID, oversight of the campaign has fallen to her staffer Jennifer Game, who will run as One Nation’s state senate candidate later this year.

The party’s spruiking policy on housing and health, with Hanson insisting the latter crisis does not require more ambos, but rather money to free up hospital beds currently allocated “other services including aged care, disability, palliative care and mental health”.

One Nation’s main game is the Legislative Council where, intriguingly, Hanson says well-placed sources have suggested the party is on track to garner a quota.

“I’ve heard it from the Liberal Party themselves – their polling shows we’re on track to actually win an Upper House seat,” she told InDaily.

“It’s about the people of this state wanting a change.”

Still, the Liberals were also enthusiastically spruiking their own poll chances this week, despite successive statewide polls putting them in an ever more parlous position.

But Hanson says one change an elected MLC would push for is a reduction in the number of lower house state seats, having recently discovered that each of the parliament’s 47 electorates services just 25,000 voters – compared to around 100,000 per federal seat.

“That’s really ridiculous and over the top – they’re ripping off the taxpayers if they think they can get the same pay but only a quarter of the constituents,” she insists.

In fact, state MPs don’t get the same pay as their federal counterparts but any wage increases are linked.

Hanson wants to see “a reduction of the number of state members of parliament in SA”, arguing that “to have 47 seats is ridiculous”.

“You’re over-governed,” she declares.

“One Nation would reduce the number of state seats – there’s no reason they can’t have twice the amount of electors, if not three times – I actually say they should be able to have 75,000 constituents in each electorate.”

Which would leave the state parliament with just 15 seats – a referendum permitting.

It would certainly make for a quick election night, at any rate.

Young love

Hanson isn’t the only Queenslander gracing our shores this week.

While much has been made of Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas’s Zoom meeting to rally the troops after this week’s Advertiser/YouGov poll suggesting a commanding statewide lead for Labor, Steven Marshall spent this week rallying the troops too.

At least, according to an Instagram post from the University of Queensland Liberal National Society, which posted a snap of a relaxed-looking Premier posing happily with their army of Young Liberal volunteers.

“UQLNS Members had the exciting opportunity to have dinner with the South Australian Premier last night,” the account posted.

“We’ll be spending the week across South Australia campaigning for his re-election!”

Still, not everyone was happy: according to the perennially grumpy anonymous email account calling itself ConcernedLiberals, “this one picture sums up why we are in such a dire position” – with Marshall taking a night out of the final week of the campaign “having dinner with a bunch of young LNP members from interstate who can’t even vote”.

One might argue that one who was concerned about the party’s dire position would not be actively and repeatedly undermining said position, but we take their point.

Still, two more sleeps…

Campaign Diary has been a regular feature in the lead-up to the election.