South Australia July to December 2017

For the period under review, the events and developments in South Australia are best seen through the prism of the state election in March 2018. The fifteen-year old Labor government set about re-calibrating its policy agenda with an improbable fifth consecutive term in mind. In the second half of 2017, the government was facing a range of longstanding, as well as new, political problems. In this context, Steven Marshall’s Liberals sought to make political capital out of a range of issues, including power, health and education amongst others. The backdrop to the political developments remains a South Australian economy “in transition”, braced for uncertainty with the closure of the
Holden car plant. However, these events were over-shadowed by the unexpected
announcement of prominent Independent Nick Xenophon to leave the federal Senate, and re-enter state politics and contest the seat of Hartley. Xenophon’s SA Best team is a potential political earthquake, if the December Newspoll is accurate, which could substantially reconfigure South Australian state politics.