Awkwardly, the Treasuxjmtzywrer was even asked today about AGL – the company that hosted him for his run-in five years ago, which is currently in the sights of Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes.
“Well… I don’t look back, I look forward,” Frydenberg said when asked about any apprehension in returning to the SA political fray.
“And when it comes to Steven Marshall, we have an outstanding partner at the federal level.”
But that could change come March 19, with yesterday’s Australia Institute-commissioner poll, published by InDaily, putting Labor ahead 52-49 on a two-party-preferred basis as the election campaign kicks off.
“I’ve always said I think it’s going to be a very tight election,” Marshall said of the poll, restating his mantra that Labor leader Peter Malinauskas is a “risk”.
“[South Australians] know what they’re going to get with the Liberal Party,” he said, citing a strong economy and a commitment to health spending.
Malinauskas was today making his own health spending commitments, receiving a rousing reception at the nurses’ union headquarters as he pledged an elected Labor government to recruiting 300 extra nurses “over and above existing budgeted increases to nurses over the forward estimates”.
He says he will also legislate nurse-patient ratios – although conceding the influx of new nurses won’t come “overnight” but during a full four-year term.
Union boss Elizabeth Dabars welcomed the commitment, arguing the “health system has been in crisis for a considerable amount of time”.
Malinauskas with nurses today.
But Marshall was quick to link the Labor leader to that crisis, repeating his argument that the former Health Minister presided over the closure of the Repat, and labelling him a “former union boss [who] has never had an economic portfolio”.
The Premier may concede the election race is tight, but he declined to pin the decline in his polling numbers since September on the decision to open SA’s borders.
