Newly elected South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas has admitted he ruined his victory speech by forgetting to thank his wife.
Mr Malinauskas will become the state’s 47th Premier after leading Labor to victory and ousting the Liberal government after just one term.
When he took to the stage at Adelaide Oval to claim victory on Saturday night, Mr Malinauskas gave a classy victory speech thanking South Australians, saying the “significance of the privilege and size of responsibility” was not lost on him.
It wasn’t until Mr Malinauskas jumped in the car afterwards that he realised he had made a glaring admission – his wife, Annabel West.
The newly elected premier laughed as he admitted he “absolutely ruined” his speech on Monday morning.
“Annabel is the most important person in my life and has made a massive sacrifice and obviously provided support to me and I can’t thank her enough,” he told Sunrise.
“What happened was when writing the speech, I honestly had it in there to thank Annabel and the kids.
“She said ‘when it comes to me don’t get all mushy and start crying’ because this has happened previously, so in my speech I get to mum and dad and mention them and then I felt the lump in my throat and was like ‘here we go’.”
He began to get emotional while thanking his parents so he decided to skip the thanks to his wife and children and come back to it later.
“I thought I’d come back to Annabel and the kids … except I didn’t come back,” Mr Malinauskas said.
“I’m absolutely brewing about it … I’m kicking myself.”
Ms West joined her husband in media appearances on polling day and stood beside him as he said the victory speech.
The couple have three young children – Jack, Sophie and Eliza.
The new premier gushed about his wife during a press conference on Sunday morning, saying he did not know how he “got so lucky in life”.
“I just would not be here without Annabel,” he said.
“When we got in the car together afterwards, it dawned on me.”
Mr Malinauskas ran a presidential style campaign which saw SA Labor returned to government after just one term in opposition.
