House of Assembly Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2) 52 2 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Grievance Debate Grievance Debate Government Performance GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE The Hon. I.F. EVANS House of Assembly Davenport The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (15:03): What a divided and tired government we have! You only have to look at the behaviour of the government over the last six months to see that this government is becoming more divided by the day. It started, Mr Speaker, you might recall, with the police minister and the Premier having public feuds about the level of police cuts and whether police numbers would hold—there were public disputes about that. There was a whole series of leaks leading up to the budget about cabinet meetings, or cabinet subcommittee meetings, that went public, then we had probably the king hit of leaks, which was the Premier's forward schedule of all the policy announcements between the date of the leak and Christmas. If you want an example of how a government is getting divided and tired, how they are losing confidence in their leader and how the right wing of the party is undermining this leader every step of the way, you only have to look at the very simple question of whether The Rolling Stones will open Adelaide Oval at the state election. The reason this has become an issue, internally, for the government is that they are starting to lose confidence in a premier who is, every day, flying more solo and, every day, relying more on his staff than the cabinet to make a decision. The matter of The Rolling Stones went back to cabinet two weeks ago, there was a huge brawl in cabinet about the Premier making certain commitments and statements without cabinet sign-off and then it went back to cabinet again this week because cabinet wanted to have a say on the matter and not just rely on the Premier. This is another signal that this cabinet does not simply trust the Premier. This cabinet wants to control the Premier. This cabinet is trying to herd the Premier into a corner so that they can control it. We all remember that it was the backbench of the Labor Party that moved motions trying to control the expenditure of Adelaide Oval. It was the backbench that had its say. This government has started to lose, and is continuing to lose, confidence in its leadership. This is a premier who is continually flying more and more solo. He came out after the last election challenging Kevin Foley (the then deputy premier and treasurer) saying that we needed a new style and new policies. What has the Premier done? He has not brought back Kevin. What he has done is brought back all Kevin's entourage. He has brought back the key policy man, Mr Mullighan. He says he wanted to get rid of Kevin Foley because he did not like Mr Foley's policies. Mr Mullighan is now back driving that exact process on behalf of the Treasury function of the Premier's portfolio. He says he did not like Mr Foley's and Mr Rann's message. What does he do? He brings back Mr Morris to deal with communication. Why is he doing that? Why is he bringing back right wing players into his office? He is doing that because the right wing faction is telling him he must do so. Slowly but surely, the divisions in this government are hamstringing the Premier and driving him into the corner and giving him less and less discretion. What does the Premier do? The Premier has decided he will make certain decisions and only advise cabinet about that (The Rolling Stones being a prime example) rather than seek cabinet sign-off. What does cabinet do? They retaliate, ask for the matter to come back into cabinet and then ask for a formal cabinet sign-off. The Rolling Stones may be a minor matter in the scheme of things but it is a symbol that at the cabinet level this government is divided. You only have to go to the question of how it is that all of the Premier's diary gets leaked and then, mysteriously, a name is given to the media. Who leaked that? You have to point the finger at somewhere in the Premier's office: someone leaked it. At the end of the day, I think all the evidence points to a government that is divided and a government that is tired.