Written by Carlos Quaremba MLC

If our Royal Commission into AI recommends cutting pen-pushing public sector workers to increase efficiency and reduce their ballooning wage bill, how will Peter Malinauskas respond?

Early signs suggest this Royal Commission is merely the latest example of a premier grandstanding for national attention – testing the waters ahead of a move to Canberra.

Recently, Mr Malinauskas deftly dodged the key question, refusing to commit to any public sector cuts, should they be advocated by the Royal Commission.

It’s no surprise.

The Premier and his party are inextricably bound to public sector unions.

Even if the Royal Commission says cutting public sector employees would boost productivity and be in South Australia’s best interests, the Premier has indicated he won’t play ball.

The unions would scream blue murder – plus Labor would abruptly put a large section of its rusted-on voting block offside.

If the ultimate decision-maker lacks the courage – and independence – to adopt certain politically inconvenient findings, is this $5m, taxpayer-funded Royal Commission really about helping South Australia? Or is it about boosting its spruiker’s national profile?

And given the respective backgrounds of the three commissioners appointed to lead this Royal Commission, it’s unlikely “productivity” will be front and centre.

Before serving as a Federal Court judge, Commissioner Iain Ross was president of the Fair Work Commission, and assistant national secretary of the ACTU.

A former union leader has no place on a Royal Commission that the Premier has promised will explore “productivity gains within the public sector”*.

The remaining two commissioners bring technical expertise. Great, but where’s the business expert armed with experience in making difficult, potentially unpopular decisions to deliver better bang for buck?

 If One Nation was in charge, our main aims would include cutting numbers in that middle-management level of the public sector. The resultant “excess” would be redirected to frontline services, reducing the wage bill drain on taxpayers and helping arrest our alarming state deficit, galloping towards $50bn.

Mr Malinauskas has been in power since 2022. If he was serious about getting more out of existing public sector workers, he could have done that already, rather than creating more government jobs and then trying to sell the line that additional public servants equal better public service.

Tell that to the record number of South Australians who have been ramped over the past year.

In fact, a Royal Commission into ramping – and why this government has failed to deliver on its 2022 election promise to fix it – makes more sense.

What about a Royal Commission into the $550m hydrogen disaster? Or SA’s out-of-control debt? Or government priorities?

Mr Malinauskas says he’s scared of AI. One Nation and a growing number of South Australians are more scared of his government’s spending habits.

AI is a national issue. In fact, a Senate Inquiry into AI is due to be handed down next month.

But you don't need AI to tell you this: the Royal Commission is about the Premier, not everyday South Australians struggling to keep their heads above water in a cost-of-living crisis created by Labor’s policies, state and federal.

*This was said on 5AA on Friday, October 2 (Will and Stacey Lee’s show)