One Nation ‘fresh meat’ for Labor in SA parliament

Weeks away from SA parliament sitting, Mike Smithson delivers One Nation a warning, telling of  “at least one” being unsure about whether “they would need to attend parliament” during sitting weeks or to attend via Zoom.

It’s been a festival weekend of Gather Round, fans besieging the Premier for selfies, visitors loving SA and AFL officials lauding Peter Malinauskas yet again.

A long-term Gather Round deal is still pending, but the political focus will soon shift.

With the first sitting day of the new parliamentary calendar less than a month away, theatrics of a different league will be something else to behold.

In the House of Assembly chamber Labor will occupy 34 seats, with the Liberals having five, One Nation, four, and the same number of Independents.

It means the government benches will spread beyond the centre line of the arched chamber floor plan, with some new Labor MPs seated far away from their party’s powerbrokers, including the Premier, on the front bench.

But of far more interest will be the impact of fledgling One Nation MPs and the lion’s den they are about to enter.

Chantelle Thomas, Jason Virgo, Robert Roylance and David Paton are new to the corridors of North Terrace and are about to discover what it’s like being small fish in a big pond.

In the Upper House, newly elected leader Cory Bernadi will dish out plenty of political tips, but his experience is limited to the Senate in Canberra in his former political life.

His fellow One Nation legislative councillors Carlos Quaremba and Rebecca Hewett are also new to this patch which can be deadly dull at times and cutthroat at others.

I’ve seen MPs come and go and mature from ‘rabbits........

© InDaily