Two of South Australia’s most senior cabinet ministers, Deputy Premier Susan Close and Treasurer Stephen Mullighan, will quit politics at next year’s state election in March.
Premier Peter Malinauskas was visibly emotional when he announced the pair will not be contesting their seats at a sudden press conference this afternoon.
He said he was taken aback when he was approached by the ministers separately a few weeks ago and tried his best to convince them not to leave, but they both shared personal reasons for their departures.
Premier Peter Malinauskas was visibly emotional when he announced the pair will not be contesting their seats. (Nine)
“‘I’m here today to make it very clear that my persuasive powers failed, and they have both announced their resignation to our cabinet earlier today,” Malinauskas told the media.
“I’m really sad by this. I’ve known Susan and Stephen for a long time, and they’re good friends of mine, and they’ve been incredible support to me in different ways over the last few years, and I’m really sad to see them go.”
Malinauskas paid special tribute to them both and said he would miss them in their roles.
“It’s really tough, and all of the service and loyalty they provided to the party and to the government and to me personally, demands nothing but gratitude from me for everything they have done, and nothing but the absolute best wishes for their journeys into the future outside of the political realm,” he said.
“In my capacity, I feel I can safely say on behalf of everyone in the cabinet and the caucus and the party, I’m going to miss them.”
Susan Close was first elected in 2012 to the seat of Port Adelaide. (Nine)
Close, who was first elected in 2012 to the seat of Port Adelaide, said she had run out of energy to serve in her roles as deputy premier and minister for climate, environment and water, industry, innovation and science and workforce and population strategy.
“Life is really short. I have been watching my mother disappear into dementia over the last four years, and it was for me an alarm bell reminding me that life is finite and it’s precious and it is way shorter than you think when you’re young,” she said.
“I want to do something else, I want to have some freedom, and I feel that I’ve given what I can give to public life.”
Close denied her resignation was due to the state’s ongoing algal bloom, saying she feared people may believe that’s the reason.
“Ironically, it made me hesitate because I was concerned that people might think that there was a connection between the two and that I was somehow fleeing the algal bloom, which is not the case at all,” she said.
Stephen Mullighan was elected to the seat of Lee in 2014. (Nine)
Mullighan was elected to the seat of Lee in 2014 and also acts as minister for police and defence and space industries.
The treasurer said that while he had been “tremendously lucky” to have been granted opportunities in politics, the job was “extremely demanding”.
“It’s not necessarily just us that’s required to make that sacrifice or to commit that dedication, it’s our families and it’s our loved ones,” he said.
“I didn’t feel I had another four years of committing this much time and effort to these roles, to the exclusion of the time that I can show at home, as a husband and as a father.”
Mullighan added that he had lost both his parents and his wife had lost her father.
“It takes a village to raise children, and our village is a little bit smaller than most, so I want to make sure the kids are still young, and I’m relatively young that I can I can be around more and be more present,” he said.
Close and Mulligan will be replaced by new ministers in the coming days, but will remain in their seats until the state election in March.
