Democracy undermined: South Australia is like a one party state

One Nation’s SA election success has not just decimated the Liberals, but more importantly, it has gutted effective opposition and undermined democracy.

South Australian election has overwhelmingly returned the Malinauskas Labor government to power. It now has 70 per cent of the seats and reduced the Liberal opposition to just five or six seats, thanks to the resurgence of One Nation.

While attention has focused on One Nation’s success, there has been little appreciation as to what happens to accountability and democracy in a Westminster system like South Australia’s, and potentially elsewhere in Australia, when “His Majesty’s loyal opposition” is reduced to such token numbers.

Certainly, One Nation gained 22 per cent of the vote, but it scored only three seats in the lower house and cannot, with the handful of disparate independents, constitute anything like meaningful “opposition”.

So, One Nation’s success has not just decimated the Liberals, but more importantly, it has gutted effective opposition in South Australia. It has given the Malinauskas government years of unfettered control, almost creating a one-party state and thus able to implement the very policies One Nation opposes. One Nation’s motivation seems to be driven more by the personal aggrandisement of its members than by seeking to reset the policy agenda or to oust Labor governments.

Such diminution of an opposition matters in Westminster systems where its role is pivotal to holding a government to account, exposing its flaws and to be the “government in waiting” ready with a suite of alternative policies and shadow ministers to take office.

This shift in South Australia has fragmented and weakened the role and power of the opposition and thus undermined one of the cornerstones of Westminster democracy. It can happen elsewhere.

Of course, it has long been hard for any opposition, federal or state, to perform these roles, given the vast resources available to incumbent governments with their growing ministerial staffs, access to departmental support, and government’s control over parliamentary processes and budget allocations – including even for oppositions.

“The party of the establishment has become increasingly disestablished.”

Let’s not forget how the Albanese government, after its landslide win last year, cut the opposition’s staffing to just 87 – minuscule compared with the government’s 470 ministerial staff.

These developments have implications for other jurisdictions like Victoria and NSW, where the Liberals, too, have been out of office for some time, experienced a high turnover of leaders, suffered from factionalism, a disillusioned base and exhibited policy confusion on many issues. This is fertile ground for One Nation to exploit.

Nor is the federal Liberal Party immune, given its recent woes with the Nationals, leadership wrangles and perceived timid policy stances. The forthcoming Farrer byelection on May 9 will test the federal Liberal Party’s resilience to such attacks.

Of course, exacerbating the Liberals’ woes in South Australia and across Australia, making them less able to rebound from such election losses, has been their gradual disconnect from community and cultural groups, universities, the professions, key interest groups and other key institutions. Consequently, Liberals have been less able to seek wider support for ideas, funding and recruits. The party of the establishment has become increasingly disestablished.

In South Australia, good government and some form of accountability no longer depend on an effective opposition because there isn’t one. Long-running Liberal ineptness and One Nation opportunism have seen to that.

Rather, good government for some time will depend on the restraint and good sense of the incumbent and the now entrenched Malinauskas government of sticking to the basics of what people need and avoiding the ideological excesses of its counterpart in Victoria. It’s a big ask.

So, the challenge for Liberals everywhere, but especially federally, for not just its very survival but more importantly for the robustness of our democracy, is how One Nation can be neutralised and effective opposition restored.

First, Liberals must avoid making One Nation their prime policy reference point in trying to match or copy their populist policy pitches. That is too narrow, too reactive, too simplistic, and threatens Liberals’ internal stability and need for a broader policy appeal for real electoral success.

Certainly, some of One Nation’s concerns are legitimate and need to be addressed, but that must be in terms of attacking the flaws of the Liberals’ prime opponent, the Labor Party, which, after all, has been the cause of many of these policy concerns. Only in this way can Liberals win office.