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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-10-28 Daily Xml
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Shadow Ministry

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta) (15:29): Ahead of my retirement from politics in a few months, I have been reflecting on some of the things I have learnt and observed over 16 years by way of giving advice to colleagues and candidates who will be here in the years ahead. As David Pisoni will say from time to time, 'Everyone is entitled to my opinion.' It is my earnest hope that over this period of time I have picked up a few things that may potentially be useful to people. Today, I just want to reflect briefly on the role of a shadow minister. Despite its guaranteed disappointments, it is still a privilege and a role where you can make your mark.

It is not lost on me as I retire, having spent about three years from the grandstand seats back here, about four years as a minister in the preferred role and approaching nine years as a shadow minister, that those proportions are not ideal. The other way around would be a lot better. Being a minister, by its nature, is a job filled with purpose, momentum and activity, whether you are any good at it or not. People you have never met are very nice to you. Some, of course, are very much not so, but a lot of people will know who you are and you have many people to support you in your role.

To be a good minister, who adds value to the state, who is able to improve people's lives, you also need, of course, to have strong ethics, sincere values, clear principles, an inquiring mind and healthy doses of scepticism, pragmatism and patience. But in terms of the lived experience of the job for the small number of people who are able to fulfil these roles, can we just take it as read that it is better to be a minister. For anyone with a passing interest in politics, being a minister is a good job; being a shadow minister is a more challenging job.

But what is a shadow minister? It does not translate easily into some languages. They do not have shadow ministers in Russia. Early in my career, when I had the privilege of being part of a study tour and visiting China for a little while with some of my colleagues, it was very difficult for our translators to convey to our hosts what our job was. There was no translation. It did not come easily to explain it. I understand that one of those translators settled upon 'assistant minister' as the translation for shadow minister.

To an extent that is true. There have been occasions when I have been in social circumstances. I will not name, other than one minister, who I am talking about, but there were occasions when I would have a good run in the media. It happened occasionally. Sometimes that would be awkward when you are then in a social circumstance with the minister or their adviser or one of their senior officials and I would have to explain that I was helping them to bring due attention to their portfolio so their cabinet colleagues would, therefore, give them the money they needed to fix this issue that I had been complaining about. The South Australian Museum comes to mind, for example. To those ministers: you are welcome to that service.

The American system does not have shadow ministers either. Executives can be separated from legislatures in democracies. Everyone in America, for example, has the role that they ran for. The Westminster system has this quirk. By its existence, the shadow ministerial role encourages ministers to be better, departments to be more accountable and our systems to be fairer with better outcomes for the people of our state. But nobody seeks to be a shadow minister as an end in itself. Like an apprentice or a candidate, by definition it is an expression of your aspiration, a chance to demonstrate why you would be better at a job than the person whom you are up against.

Opposition can be depressing. The fact you are often judged by how effectively you are providing character critiques and capability assessments of the person whose job you want can fray at the edges of anyone's mental health, even the most tempered person. When success is measured in column inches and radio grabs, the opposition will never succeed. Shadow ministers can critique ministers, say what we would do differently after the election, but at 5.45 in the morning, it can be hard to convince a radio producer of the priority of what you have to say.

The daily experience requires patience, forbearance and a lot of hard work, but it can be rewarding. By throwing yourself into engaging with stakeholders and learning everything you can about an area, you can fulfil the potential of the role. In my case, and indeed in the case of Nick Gibb, the excellent conservative education minister who finished up at the last election and who has just written a book, visiting hundreds of schools, speaking to hundreds of engaged, interested stakeholders, learning to understand and share their passion has been a privilege. Being in a position to influence government policy and legislation, or block it if it is bad or help nurture it if it is good, is a privilege.

Sometimes you can fix things with a call to the minister. You can proactively bring ideas to the table that stakeholders have brought and get them done. Ideally, you can also identify problems and help design solutions that will work in practice. Go hard, argue your case, fight hard but with values and principles, and shadow ministers can do important work. For all the Labor people who will fill those roles after March, I urge you to do so in good spirit, and for the people of South Australia.

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