Ever wondered about the journey of a true leader? What drives them, inspires them, or how they manage during a crisis? Today's your chance to find out!
Join us for an exclusive episode featuring the 46th Premier of South Australia, Steven Marshall! We're going behind the scenes, uncovering stories from his early life, his shift into politics, and the thrill of becoming Premier.
Here's what you can look forward to:
👉 Steven's inspiring transition from business to politics.
👉 The behind-the-scenes of managing a team, a pandemic, and the media's attention.
👉 How he's fostering South Australia's thriving startup ecosystem.
👉 Balancing work and family life: a leader's perspective.
👉 Living in South Australia: the inside scoop.
This episode is brimming with leadership insights, resilience, and the power of creating synergy.
So why wait? Tune in NOW! Share it with friends who love to learn, grow, and be inspired. 🚀
Where to find Steven Marshall
BOOKS MENTIONED IN THE PODCAST:
Join the conversation on Synergy IQ on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram (@synergyiq).
Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us.
Say hello to our host Daniel Franco on LinkedIn.
Ever wondered about the journey of a true leader? What drives them, inspires them, or how they manage during a crisis? Today's your chance to find out!
Join us for an exclusive episode featuring the 46th Premier of South Australia, Steven Marshall! We're going behind the scenes, uncovering stories from his early life, his shift into politics, and the thrill of becoming Premier.
Here's what you can look forward to:
👉 Steven's inspiring transition from business to politics.
👉 The behind-the-scenes of managing a team, a pandemic, and the media's attention.
👉 How he's fostering South Australia's thriving startup ecosystem.
👉 Balancing work and family life: a leader's perspective.
👉 Living in South Australia: the inside scoop.
This episode is brimming with leadership insights, resilience, and the power of creating synergy.
So why wait? Tune in NOW! Share it with friends who love to learn, grow, and be inspired. 🚀
Where to find Steven Marshall
BOOKS MENTIONED IN THE PODCAST:
Join the conversation on Synergy IQ on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram (@synergyiq).
Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us.
Say hello to our host Daniel Franco on LinkedIn.
00:00:04:17 - 00:00:27:26
Daniel Franco
Everyone. And welcome to another episode of the Creating Synergy Podcast. Today we've got a truly fascinating guest with us, a man who needs little introduction to anyone who's lived in or near South Australia over the past decade. He's been a leader in politics and in business, a reformer, a problem solver and a beacon of resilience and hope during challenging times.
00:00:28:24 - 00:01:08:14
Daniel Franco
Today we're joined by Steven Marshall, the 46th premier of South Australia, a title that he held from 2008 to 2022. And before stepping into the political realm, he successfully navigated the world of business, particularly in his family's furniture business. Marshall Furniture, over the next hour or so, will delve into Steven's upbringing, his triumph, his challenges, and the key lessons that have shaped his life and career from understanding the core values that his family instilled in him from an early age to exploring the pivotal moments in politics and his strong push for investment and innovation in South Australia.
00:01:09:15 - 00:01:38:24
Daniel Franco
Whether it's that it would have been remiss of us to not spend some time in South Australia's response to the pandemic, Pizzagate, and how he managed the reopening of the borders. Last but not least, Stephen provides his insights on these initial steps into the worlds of politics, his tenure as premier and working 80 hours a week, and the struggle to maintain a work life balance to how he dealt emotionally and professionally with not being reelected as premier and to what his future aspirations look like beyond politics.
00:01:39:04 - 00:02:04:24
Daniel Franco
So without further ado, let's jump in and explore the remarkable journey of Steven Marshall. So welcome back to the Creating Synergy Podcast. Today we have an amazing human being on the show. The 46 premier of South Australia. He served as Premier from 2008 to 2022, was leader of the South Australian Liberal Party for nine years and currently serving as the member of Dunstan.
00:02:05:08 - 00:02:07:08
Daniel Franco
Mr. Steven Marshall, welcome to the show.
00:02:07:14 - 00:02:09:15
Steven Marshall
Good morning to you, Daniel, and to the listeners.
00:02:10:11 - 00:02:32:16
Daniel Franco
I've I've been extremely nervous about this podcast. I think I've wanted to I've invited you on this show so many times. And I, I always said to everyone, I got asked a lot, When are you going to get Stephen on? When are you going to get Stephen on? And I'm like, I've been asking him and I remember I asked you once and you said, Oh, I would love to go on a podcast.
00:02:32:26 - 00:02:51:06
Daniel Franco
And I took that as a yes. But then your right, your team knocked it back a few times. So I'm very, very happy to have you here. Thank you for joining us. I'm one question. There's a few people that know that you're coming on today. And one question they always ask me is, what's he doing these days?
00:02:51:14 - 00:02:51:27
Steven Marshall
Well, I'm still a.
00:02:51:27 - 00:03:09:20
Steven Marshall
Member of parliament, so I'm the member for Dunstan, which is the inner eastern suburbs here and in Adelaide is Adelaide. Listeners would know, but maybe other people around the country wouldn't know. So it's an inner city seat. It's a great seat. It's very diverse seat. And so I'm representing them in Parliament, but I'm still also looking at how we advance South Australia.
00:03:09:20 - 00:03:30:09
Steven Marshall
I think we're in a particularly good space at the moment with future industries focus the return of net migration back to South Australia for the first time in 40 years, a strong economy. There are some global economic trends, some headwinds if you like, that are a bit worrying, but I think South Australia is a good place to sort of weather that.
00:03:30:09 - 00:03:34:19
Steven Marshall
But those are those headwinds and I'm wanting to play my part.
00:03:35:15 - 00:03:53:12
Daniel Franco
So there's, you know, there's obviously I don't know if you call them rumors or there's is talk that you're looking outside of Parliament or you're looking at sort of the the world of politics. Is that something that you can confirm or are you still just concentrating on what you have to do these days?
00:03:53:13 - 00:03:53:21
Steven Marshall
Well, no, I've.
00:03:53:21 - 00:04:12:16
Steven Marshall
Said I'm not going on at the next election, as you said, but as the leader of the Liberal Party in South Australia for more than nine years, that's long enough for anybody. It's like a football club. You've got to renew the leadership of your team, and that's exactly what David Speers has been doing. But, you know, I'm happy in the in the service at the moment.
00:04:12:16 - 00:04:15:19
Steven Marshall
There's been rumors since the day I lost the election.
00:04:16:01 - 00:04:18:07
Steven Marshall
I think there were about 30 predictions.
00:04:18:27 - 00:04:21:00
Steven Marshall
Last year that I was definitely going this.
00:04:21:00 - 00:04:21:14
Steven Marshall
Year.
00:04:22:01 - 00:04:24:14
Steven Marshall
It predictions that I'm going have.
00:04:24:14 - 00:04:26:14
Steven Marshall
All been wrong. Yeah, I'm still here.
00:04:26:14 - 00:04:29:09
Steven Marshall
And still very happy to serve in the South Australian Parliament.
00:04:29:20 - 00:04:54:17
Daniel Franco
Very good. Well, we'll have use for as long as you want us to. Here I am. I'm I want to tell the podcast that we have the Creating Synergy podcast is it's a leadership and business podcast. So it's it's not a political podcast. I'm not going to ask you a thousand different political questions because I I'm not that smart and be I'm really interested in the human behind Steven Marshall as opposed to the politician.
00:04:54:17 - 00:05:13:14
Daniel Franco
So that's kind of where we're going to go today with the with the questions. So in saying that to understand the person that's sitting in front of me, what do we need to know about your earliest context? What do we need to know about Steven Marshall growing up? Who was the who was the kid?
00:05:15:02 - 00:05:37:14
Steven Marshall
Pretty normal kid growing up in the western suburbs in South Australia. Mum and Dad, two younger sisters, went to the local primary school, rode my bike there, went off to Emmanuel College for my secondary school, did university here in South Australia, although I also did an MBA overseas and I worked in our family business. So that's basically my background.
00:05:37:14 - 00:05:40:09
Steven Marshall
That was in the manufacturing sector. I love that sector.
00:05:40:18 - 00:05:41:16
Daniel Franco
My furniture is.
00:05:41:16 - 00:06:07:21
Steven Marshall
That that's right and I really love that sector. I think it was a great employer in in Australia, the furniture manufacturing sector, and I learned a lot there, you know, about constraints, about stock management, about motivating people, about strategic planning. I think I cut my teeth, if you like, on, you know, in terms of business and strategy and ultimately strategy for the state working in the manufacturing sector.
00:06:08:17 - 00:06:10:19
Daniel Franco
Fabulous. Now, you glossed over your childhood.
00:06:10:19 - 00:06:11:12
Steven Marshall
Really quickly.
00:06:11:12 - 00:06:22:02
Daniel Franco
That Well, give us something. Give me something. What was one of your most cherished memories? Like, what was a lesson that you learned? How would you in good stead through your career? Was this something that you look back on and smile?
00:06:22:15 - 00:06:48:04
Steven Marshall
Yeah, well, certainly I had a very happy childhood. You know, I think we're all a product of our parents. Yeah, My father was a very hard working, high integrity doer character who was focused on improving his lot and a lot of his family. He said routinely that we live in the best country in the world because it doesn't matter where you're born, you can achieve whatever you like.
00:06:48:05 - 00:07:18:08
Steven Marshall
You have to apply yourself and so that was my father. My mother was very positive person, a very generous person, you know, a lovely personality, very caring. And so I grew up in that environment. I absolutely loved it. And as I said to younger sisters, mum and dad really want us to get involved in the local community. So we were signed up to every single thing by like, oh, you know, Cub Scouts, local swimming, surf, life saving the local sailing club.
00:07:18:08 - 00:07:38:29
Steven Marshall
Like literally if they could, you know, little athletics, if they could get us out of the house interacting with everybody else. That's exactly what they did. They certainly weren't helicopter parents, which is I think, a sort of modern day term. You know, more of a we want our kids to experience everything that exists out there. And so they were just, as I said, routinely sign up and send this out.
00:07:38:29 - 00:07:41:26
Steven Marshall
And it was it was a very fun childhood. Yeah.
00:07:41:28 - 00:07:45:06
Daniel Franco
I took good at the sports and stuff and in the scouts.
00:07:45:12 - 00:07:46:02
Steven Marshall
I was.
00:07:46:13 - 00:07:47:18
Steven Marshall
I was. I enjoyed.
00:07:47:18 - 00:07:48:01
Daniel Franco
It. Yeah.
00:07:48:10 - 00:08:02:04
Steven Marshall
Um, first summer for scouts and the same for Surf Lifesaving Club, the Largs Bay Sailing Club. I learned a lot. Sailing. I mean, a lot about strategy, a lot about teamwork. Yeah. When I think about some of the harrowing situations that.
00:08:02:04 - 00:08:05:19
Steven Marshall
I was surveyed as a 12 year old out at sea in.
00:08:05:19 - 00:08:26:01
Steven Marshall
Pretty rough conditions, you really have to learn how to survive in those conditions. Yeah, I really I really loved it. It was a it was a great childhood getaways. Every year my dad's send back the boats, you know, back to the bad timber, repaint the hull, re varnish, the decking and the cockpit. You know, he was yeah, he was.
00:08:26:13 - 00:08:28:00
Steven Marshall
He liked us to learn practical.
00:08:28:00 - 00:08:28:13
Daniel Franco
Skills.
00:08:29:07 - 00:08:31:26
Steven Marshall
And he really loved us just to be involved in everything we possibly could.
00:08:33:01 - 00:08:38:06
Daniel Franco
You're you're mentioned your old man a couple of times. Did he have a huge impact on your life?
00:08:38:06 - 00:08:38:25
Steven Marshall
He still.
00:08:38:25 - 00:09:00:11
Daniel Franco
Does. He still does. Still does. In as in, is he the type of man that you wanted to be when you grow up? Or how did he impact you? Obviously, the discipline, his thought process obviously held you in good stead, sanding back the boats and repainting them and teaching you some discipline. Sounds like something that was front and center of his way of bringing you up.
00:09:00:27 - 00:09:20:26
Steven Marshall
Yeah. Look, I think he's a case study for Australian success. You know, he grew up in a a loving family, but a particularly poor family. His father was a Wolfie. His mother cleaned the school at the Largs by school. He went off to a favor take. Yeah. In those days, very few people went through to leaving honors in university, but he wanted to.
00:09:20:26 - 00:09:39:21
Steven Marshall
He set his goal very early that he wanted to work for a multinational company. This is a big thing in the sixties to work for a multinational company. And it wasn't easy to get a job working for a multinational company. So he went to Mobil Oil and said, Well, how would I get a job here? And I said, Well, you need to get a a degree or a first class engineer certificate.
00:09:40:10 - 00:09:58:19
Steven Marshall
He said, Well, I'm not going to get a degree, so I'm going to get a first class engineer certificate. And he went to the shipping lines and said, Well, how do I get a first class engineer certificate? Well, they said, Well, you've got to have an apprenticeship. And so in those days, apprenticeships were five years. So he went and worked at Holden down at Woodville, did his five year apprenticeship.
00:09:58:19 - 00:10:19:28
Steven Marshall
The day he finished, he went to say the day he got his first class engineer's certificate, he left the shipping line and he started at Mobil. And he just he always was focused on his goals. And I think that that was I think we you know, we all, you know, and he taught all of us children to be focused on goals and his seven grandchildren.
00:10:19:28 - 00:10:28:24
Steven Marshall
And I see that, you know, that has really been a shift. He he didn't like people just drifting through life. But really to focus on where do you want to be and how are you going to get there?
00:10:29:10 - 00:10:32:18
Daniel Franco
Do you do you still turn to him for advice these days?
00:10:32:21 - 00:10:42:03
Steven Marshall
Well, unfortunately, he's passed away now, so he passed away in November 2018 after I became the premier of South Australia. So he was very pleased about that.
00:10:42:03 - 00:10:42:21
Daniel Franco
I didn't pick that up.
00:10:44:01 - 00:10:45:02
Steven Marshall
But he, you know.
00:10:45:14 - 00:10:49:24
Steven Marshall
He still has a massive influence. Anybody in Cabinet will tell you at least half a dozen of my.
00:10:49:24 - 00:10:51:28
Steven Marshall
Father's stories or or.
00:10:52:00 - 00:11:12:27
Steven Marshall
Sayings, because he, as you rightly point out, has had a a massive influence. I think everybody's parents has a massive influence. Let's hope that it's a good influence, but it's always massive. And I think if we're clever, we can take those good traits from each of our parents, good traits from our mother, good traits from our father. Sometimes, unfortunately, people would take the bad traits.
00:11:12:27 - 00:11:15:13
Steven Marshall
Yeah, but I think you can choose which ones you take.
00:11:16:10 - 00:11:34:12
Daniel Franco
What core values did you have growing up as a family? It sounded like your parents, you know, Although they were strict and probably disciplined, they looked like they gave you a little bit of rope as well, you know, let you loose, run around a bit, get out into the community. What was the core family values that you had growing up?
00:11:34:23 - 00:11:49:04
Steven Marshall
I think probably core was set your goals work hard from dad and from mum. Just get involved as much as you possibly can. So the sort of things that drove myself and my my two sisters, they were hugely supportive.
00:11:49:12 - 00:11:50:09
Steven Marshall
I mean, I can still.
00:11:50:16 - 00:12:07:18
Steven Marshall
Vividly remember my father saying to all of us, Look, sit your goals, write them down on a piece of pie, but in a lot of detail about what you're going to achieve and the date that you're going to achieve it, and then sign it and put it in the top drawer of your of your desk. Back in those days, we all had.
00:12:07:21 - 00:12:12:19
Steven Marshall
Dates sort of sitting on a laptop in your bed to do your.
00:12:12:19 - 00:12:21:06
Steven Marshall
Homework. You sat at the at the desk to do your work. And that was, you know, something that I vividly remember. And I remember him talking to my kids about that as well.
00:12:21:11 - 00:12:23:02
Daniel Franco
Do you still do that? Yeah.
00:12:23:14 - 00:12:25:16
Steven Marshall
Yeah, absolutely not. Not the desk.
00:12:25:16 - 00:12:29:12
Steven Marshall
Anymore. Not the top drawer of the. It's a note is a note.
00:12:29:12 - 00:12:33:16
Daniel Franco
Do you think that writing in your phone is the same as writing it down on a piece of paper?
00:12:33:16 - 00:12:34:03
Steven Marshall
I'm still a.
00:12:34:05 - 00:12:40:18
Steven Marshall
I'm look, I'm still a letter writer. I would probably shoot off 20 or 30 handwritten notes every every week.
00:12:40:18 - 00:12:41:13
Daniel Franco
I think it's most valuable.
00:12:41:13 - 00:12:59:27
Steven Marshall
I mean, you know, to people that I've come in contact with, you know? So I think it's still a it's a it's still a nice way of communicating. And it's a point of differentiation. We all get bombarded with data and text messages and and messages on on social media apologies to anybody that I haven't replied to, but there's just too many.
00:12:59:27 - 00:13:02:00
Steven Marshall
But I do like the written form.
00:13:02:04 - 00:13:18:10
Daniel Franco
Yeah, I agree. I think it helps solidify in your brain when you do write. I mean, I read a lot and I find the best way for me to retain the knowledge as I'm reading is to actually write this note. Electronic notepad would you believe that?
00:13:18:10 - 00:13:18:29
Steven Marshall
It's very nice.
00:13:19:00 - 00:13:35:29
Daniel Franco
It is remarkable. It's it's a great little thing. I should pull the plug on it for, but it's the writing it down. I think really helps me. So writing goes down. What was what were some of those early goals? Do you remember anything that you wrote down in your early childhood before you went to you?
00:13:36:00 - 00:13:37:11
Steven Marshall
It was a long time ago.
00:13:37:11 - 00:13:42:06
Steven Marshall
I mean, I was born in 68, so I talk about, you know, goal setting since the 1970s.
00:13:42:18 - 00:13:48:03
Daniel Franco
I wanted to play for Australia and cricket, you know, and that was a goal for for me it. Was there anything that you.
00:13:49:04 - 00:13:54:23
Steven Marshall
About it I think because my son wrote down, you know, he wanted to be an international soccer.
00:13:54:23 - 00:14:02:11
Steven Marshall
Star and I apparently was sort of said, look, I don't think that's going to happen. And when when people ask Charlie in.
00:14:02:11 - 00:14:05:13
Steven Marshall
Front of me once, you know what what do you want to do, Charlie? He said, well, I want it to.
00:14:05:13 - 00:14:13:24
Steven Marshall
Be added to that know soccer star. But my father destroyed my dreams. He's got a sense of humor, but he's actually achieved.
00:14:13:24 - 00:14:18:09
Steven Marshall
A lot of his goals through writing them down and I think that's the thing. If you set your.
00:14:18:09 - 00:14:19:10
Daniel Franco
Goals, yeah.
00:14:19:18 - 00:14:25:27
Steven Marshall
You've got a much better chance of achieving a, you know, a life where you have a sense of achievement.
00:14:26:04 - 00:14:29:11
Daniel Franco
You've done well and deflecting did give me one go that you had.
00:14:29:17 - 00:14:42:15
Steven Marshall
I honestly can't remember as the I mean look there would have been all the, you know, passed matric all of those sort of goals back in the day. But, you know, I certainly I can't remember I can't remember the details of those.
00:14:42:19 - 00:14:49:03
Daniel Franco
So did you go overseas to study for your university degree and what sort of prompted that decision?
00:14:49:10 - 00:15:10:18
Steven Marshall
No, I did my undergraduate degree here at the Institute of Technology, which is now the University of South Australia, the campus on North Terrace up near Lot 14. And that was great. So I did the Bachelor of Business there and then after I finished that, I thought I would do my MBA. This was the MBAs were coming into fashion in the early or late eighties, early nineties.
00:15:10:18 - 00:15:36:00
Steven Marshall
And so I in 92 headed off to the UK to do my MBA at Durham University, and it's third oldest university in the UK. Oh, sorry, it's in England. I think St Andrew's and Edinburgh are older in know up in Scotland, but certainly it's a great university. I learned a lot and it was just it was just opening your eyes to a broader context outside of South Australia, outside of Australia.
00:15:36:00 - 00:15:37:12
Daniel Franco
How, how long were you there for?
00:15:37:13 - 00:15:40:24
Steven Marshall
12 months. So it's a former, a full, full time.
00:15:40:24 - 00:15:41:03
Daniel Franco
Yeah.
00:15:41:27 - 00:15:52:08
Steven Marshall
1248 weeks contact and uh, and then the day I finished, the day I handed in my dissertation, Dad said right back to work.
00:15:52:08 - 00:15:54:19
Daniel Franco
So did you want to stay over?
00:15:54:19 - 00:15:56:10
Steven Marshall
Yes. Yeah. I said, Look.
00:15:56:12 - 00:16:07:14
Steven Marshall
Dad, look, everybody else is going to stay around for the graduation. And what are you talking about? Just get back to work. You know which. Which was good, you know, and really, you know, been away for a year. It was good to come back.
00:16:08:15 - 00:16:32:10
Daniel Franco
So then the business Marshall Furniture. Yeah, I heard and have been told that it was actually a very successful business. It was something that you guys built up to, you know, as you know, very successful monetary wise, all of the above. Why? Why? Tell me about that. Tell me about your journey and and why you love doing that.
00:16:32:11 - 00:16:56:28
Steven Marshall
The business started in South Australia, I think in the 1930s. It was called Tubular Steel Industries. Then it became Namco Industries and then it was bought out by a firm, a company out of Melbourne called McIlrath Davey. Dad bought it the South Australian operations of Namco Industry, I think back in the early 1980s and we sold in about 2001, I think.
00:16:56:28 - 00:17:30:01
Steven Marshall
So Dad retired in 97. I took over from Dad in 97, so I was still in my twenties, had a couple of hundred employees I really enjoyed. As I said, I learned a huge amount, but I think that manufacturing was globalizing at that point. So there were major structural changes between retailers, manufacturers, and we just saw the opportunity to sell the business to a global player and then get into sort of more diversified investments as a family.
00:17:30:02 - 00:17:30:11
Steven Marshall
Yeah.
00:17:31:02 - 00:17:33:13
Daniel Franco
So from 2001, you sold that, was that correct?
00:17:33:22 - 00:17:39:28
Steven Marshall
Yes. So 2001 we sold Marshall furniture. So when you think about this lot more than 20 years ago.
00:17:39:28 - 00:17:44:27
Daniel Franco
Yeah, it is. Yeah. And you entered policy ten years later, what did you do in between?
00:17:45:06 - 00:17:50:01
Steven Marshall
So I had to work for the people that we sold to. So I worked for them for a couple of.
00:17:50:02 - 00:17:51:07
Steven Marshall
Years and.
00:17:51:07 - 00:18:14:25
Steven Marshall
Then I was just on an on a range of South Australian boards and also some executive positions, and I really enjoyed that as well. I love the diversity, but in about 2008 I think I was preselected for the what was then a sort of a reasonably safe Labor seat in Nord, as it was called. Then, and it was held by Venetia Chiarello before her.
00:18:14:25 - 00:18:29:25
Steven Marshall
Greg Crafter I mean this was essentially Don Dunstan's seat. So historically a Labor seat, and then I won that that seat in March 2010. So that was the, that was the journey, that's where it all started.
00:18:30:27 - 00:18:46:12
Daniel Franco
So what inspired you to pursue this career in policy? Obviously, you know, growing up you did a lot of community stuff. You got out there and gave back. But why? Why did you think this was your next career?
00:18:47:06 - 00:18:47:24
Steven Marshall
Yeah, I.
00:18:48:11 - 00:19:02:27
Steven Marshall
I sort of formed the opinion in the early to mid 2000 that South Australia wasn't fulfilling its full ambition. We sort of tended to rank towards the bottom of all of those national indices.
00:19:02:27 - 00:19:03:25
Daniel Franco
The backwater state.
00:19:03:29 - 00:19:25:25
Steven Marshall
Yeah, and we had this massive net migration out of South Australia. We seemed to be focused predominantly on industry in the rear vision mirror, including the auto sector, which was, you know, a very tough sector. And I think we'd developed a bit of a narrative of a whingeing state, you know, complaining about Canberra, complaining about the eastern seaboard rather than making our own future.
00:19:25:25 - 00:19:52:15
Steven Marshall
And so I used to sort of complain to a lot of my friends about the State of South Australia and eventually, as all good friends do, they said, you know, we could just shut up or do something about it. So I joined the Liberal Party and I put my name forward for the pre-selection, for the Liberal Party, for the seat of Norwood, and then as I said, went on, won that seat and then just sort of set about that task of, you know, what I could contribute to, you know, a turn around shifting the dial in South Australia.
00:19:54:09 - 00:20:13:28
Daniel Franco
What, what lessons did you learn in that early, early part of your political career? I think, you know, moving from the world to business into politics, I mean, we always come up against politics in business, but this is a different kettle of fish. What was some of those early things that surprised you as you joined the party?
00:20:14:24 - 00:20:15:28
Steven Marshall
Well, look, they are very different.
00:20:15:28 - 00:20:16:10
Daniel Franco
Yeah.
00:20:17:01 - 00:20:52:04
Steven Marshall
A lot of business people say that they would make, you know, brilliant politicians. It is a different game. It is really a different game. And so, you know, I had to learn a whole new set of skills. You're not running a corporation. You're not making strategic decisions where you're reporting to a ten person board. You're, you know, reporting to you a million people that are in the electorates that decide, you know, whether or not you're going to survive or not.
00:20:52:04 - 00:21:20:07
Steven Marshall
So you've got to always have one, you know, eye to how you can take people with you. I think there's a tether between a reformist government and the people. They'll let you that there's some you build up some political capital and you can actually move in an area which, you know, might be uncomfortable. But ultimately, if that tether breaks, then then you lose those people.
00:21:20:08 - 00:21:41:25
Daniel Franco
Yeah. So we talk about skill set. I think one skill set that I've always I think what frustrates me more than anything, but I also know the reason why they do it at all political politicians is the way they speak. It's very much around, you know, and I used that comment earlier, I would love to do a podcast is not saying yes or no.
00:21:41:25 - 00:22:00:24
Daniel Franco
It's it's almost potentially deflecting the question, is that something that you had to learn quickly because it coming from business and especially a family business, I'm pretty sure there would have been some direct conversations in your career moving into politics and changing and learning a new way of talking. Was that something that that took you a long time to adapt to?
00:22:01:09 - 00:22:29:06
Steven Marshall
Well, when you're in business, you don't have everybody around you looking for a misstatement with the ability to record that and use it, weaponize it, if you like, for their own purposes. So you don't need to be particularly careful. Whereas when you're in politics, you do need to think about, well, could that be taken out of context? How could that be turned into a meme or how could it be turned into a television commercial?
00:22:29:09 - 00:22:29:20
Daniel Franco
Yeah.
00:22:30:10 - 00:22:32:18
Steven Marshall
That would come back to bite me.
00:22:32:18 - 00:22:44:03
Daniel Franco
So how many times did you just want to, like, rip the band and often just say, you know, for for f sake or whatever it might be, This is what this is what needs to happen. I mean.
00:22:44:13 - 00:22:45:14
Steven Marshall
I think politicians are.
00:22:45:14 - 00:22:51:03
Steven Marshall
Not politicians, so media have to do their job. Yeah, that's just what they do. Yeah. Um, you know.
00:22:51:09 - 00:22:52:15
Daniel Franco
Did you get frustrated at them?
00:22:52:24 - 00:23:12:27
Steven Marshall
Oh, look, they probably got frustrated at me. Yeah, they probably got frustrated at me. Look, we. You have to do your own if you have to. We've both got our own tasks to perform. I think Sir Winston Churchill famously said, you know, a politician complaining about the media is like a sailor complaining about the sea. You know.
00:23:13:07 - 00:23:13:26
Daniel Franco
You need them.
00:23:13:26 - 00:23:14:12
Steven Marshall
You need them.
00:23:14:14 - 00:23:15:17
Daniel Franco
Yeah, absolutely.
00:23:15:21 - 00:23:40:23
Steven Marshall
And it's really good that we live in a country where we do have a media that can hold government and politicians and business and citizens to account. Yeah, and that's not the case in every part of the world. So, no, you know, we've got to make sure that we, uh, we respect the fact that we do have that that ability in Australia and, and also celebrate the fact that we've got that ability.
00:23:40:24 - 00:23:58:26
Daniel Franco
It's really a form that everything is open for interpretation, the way you, you or anyone else would answer a question in the way the media would then write it, it then it divides, it creates this division. I think that's the part that frustrates me the most, is that someone would read it and I would read it from their perspective, and I would take that and they would say, This is what it means.
00:23:58:26 - 00:24:11:22
Daniel Franco
And then someone who might be a little bit more educated might take it in a different way. All the above. That's it's just this constant. It feels like this constant circle that we we can never break out of. But anyway, that's not good.
00:24:11:22 - 00:24:19:16
Steven Marshall
Yeah, it's hard to know what the alternative is. Yeah, it's not a perfect system, but it's hard to know what the alternative would be. So censorship doesn't sound very appealing.
00:24:19:16 - 00:24:52:26
Daniel Franco
No, it doesn't. No. So the path to becoming the 46 premium and the path to success is often paved with obstacles, setbacks. And you were the Liberal Party leader going into 2004 election and were unsuccessful. How did you how did you manage this hurdle? How did you not throw in the towel at this point? How did you get through this time, which would have been, you know, a bit of a hit to the head, to the ego hits all the above.
00:24:53:26 - 00:24:56:24
Steven Marshall
Well, I became the leader of the Liberal Party.
00:24:57:21 - 00:25:28:22
Steven Marshall
One year out from the 2014 election, the Liberal Party won 53% of the vote. I mean, it's almost arithmetically impossible to lose an election with 53% of the vote. But there was a crazy set of circumstances that occurred with a couple of independents and the very sad death ultimately of Bob Such, who was a member of Parliament and it gave Jay Weatherill that opportunity to form a minority government with Geoff Brock.
00:25:28:22 - 00:26:01:25
Steven Marshall
So look, that's just a statement of history. Now from my perspective, I had those two alternatives at 2014 to say, well, you know, I had that opportunity and I was grateful for it, but I didn't win. And so I'll say off into the sunset or, you know, recalibrate for the 2018 state election. And one of the people, one of the people that were one of the persons that was very keen for me to continue was actually John Howard.
00:26:01:25 - 00:26:27:05
Steven Marshall
I remember the call from him on a Saturday morning about a week after the election, asking me to stay on. He he believed in the direction that we were going in. The state Liberal team was going in and he was very helpful between 2014 and 2018 and we did work very hard during that period to define where we wanted to go.
00:26:27:05 - 00:26:53:18
Steven Marshall
If we were fortunate enough to get elected in 2018, we put our manifesto out 2036, which is the bicentenary of South Australia, and we were ready when we won in 2018 to just hit the ground running and really roll out a massive, what I would call a traditional reform agenda where we knew what we were going to do in every portfolio organizationally of the metrics that we would set for ourselves.
00:26:53:18 - 00:27:04:25
Steven Marshall
And I think that, you know, when you look at that period of time independently, whether or not we set out to what did we achieve, what we set out to achieve, I think most reasonable people would say yes.
00:27:06:18 - 00:27:10:12
Daniel Franco
Do you think if you were elected in 2014, you would have been ready?
00:27:10:25 - 00:27:27:22
Steven Marshall
No, I don't think so, because we were only a year out. I think we would have done a better job than what we did achieve between 2014 and 2018, because I think Labor at that stage had been in for 12 years. And and and it was, you know, I think that they had lost their direction as a party.
00:27:27:22 - 00:27:50:20
Steven Marshall
And I think it was it was a particularly tough period. But I think our team was more settled, more resolved, more focused on what we needed to achieve. And if you think about it, that's logical because we had an additional four years to prepare the strategic plan, if you like, and that tactical implementation plan. Whereas you know, in the lead up to 2014, we basically had a year after the change of leadership.
00:27:52:24 - 00:28:27:15
Daniel Franco
For those who might not know the political system well, maybe probably one of those people help me understand your role as a leader and you a leader of the Liberal Party. But when we talk about if we were to apply leadership to to business, it's about leading people, creating vision, setting strategy, All of the above. Is it is it like for like is it a different type of leadership role or is it similar to the business world where it's about, you know, recruiting the right team, setting visions, attracting talent, working with community?
00:28:27:15 - 00:28:31:01
Daniel Franco
I understand all that's there. But is it like for like all slightly different?
00:28:31:01 - 00:28:58:15
Steven Marshall
Well, it depends on the business. So large businesses have a board and an executive team and then other people that would do the work in a political party. It's pretty small. Yeah. So you have 20 or 25 people, hopefully more, that are elected under your banner and somebody has to be the leader in that group. So we do that with the with an election which I won in 20th January 2013.
00:28:58:17 - 00:28:58:28
Steven Marshall
Yeah.
00:28:58:28 - 00:29:11:29
Daniel Franco
And I think what I'm talking about from leadership point of view is how do you hold these people accountable? Are you are you doing that? Is that your role, accountability across the board and making sure that people are hitting targets in all the above?
00:29:12:00 - 00:29:12:27
Steven Marshall
Yeah, well.
00:29:13:08 - 00:29:36:19
Steven Marshall
There's there are there's a major difference between the two major parties. I mean, as liberals, we believe in the rights of the individual and so people can be divergent from the stated policies of the Liberal Party, hopefully not all of them. Otherwise why they a Liberal people can choose? Well, I don't I don't agree with that. And so I'm going to go in a different direction on this particular issue.
00:29:36:19 - 00:29:58:13
Steven Marshall
Yeah, that's not the case in the Labor Party. A majority view is shared by everybody, otherwise they're not in the party. Yeah, essentially. So it is more difficult to keep discipline in the Liberal Party. But what I did was to try to sit in a very clear direction, ambition for the party and then put KPIs in for everybody to work towards that.
00:29:58:13 - 00:30:24:21
Steven Marshall
So we would measure, you know, the number of times people were in the media make that relative to their shadow, the number of times I would submit policy ideas, number of times I would submit questions, you know, even right down to the number of times that they spoke in the South Australian Parliament. So we would sit, everybody goes and then we would measure them against that, just as people would do in an organization.
00:30:24:21 - 00:30:54:00
Steven Marshall
And you just give, you'd give feedback. Even in my cabinet we had, you know, 360 degree feedback on each of the cabinet ministers, which I'm not sure really goes on much in the, in the in the political world. But we would sit down regularly and give feedback to each other and also areas that we could improve through.
00:30:54:10 - 00:31:12:29
Daniel Franco
And it's obviously a very business focused thing. The the 360 feedback that was there and not always the some kind of a put this. Some people may not always accept the feedback. Did you feel that that was the case with you and your team?
00:31:13:11 - 00:31:29:08
Steven Marshall
I thought the methodology we used, which was a self-assessment appear assessment and then my sort of assessment I thought was a fair way of going because somebody would say, Look, I write right myself here as a right, as a as a four out of five. And and, you know, my peers think that you're a two.
00:31:29:08 - 00:31:30:18
Steven Marshall
Out of five. You can have that.
00:31:30:18 - 00:31:31:22
Daniel Franco
Sort of there's an area it's.
00:31:31:22 - 00:31:50:19
Steven Marshall
More of a discussion than anything else. And I think most people are just like if it's handled well, if it's handled professionally, it's a positive, if it's handled poorly compared, terrible negative performance management. But in my situation, you know, I really I think people valued getting feedback on what they were doing.
00:31:51:05 - 00:32:28:07
Daniel Franco
They do. So you go through the next four years and 2000 and I think comes up. Yep. Steven Marshall is elected as the 46 premier of South Australia. I can't even imagine the immense excitement, the anticipation, the sense of responsibility that you would have felt on that night when you got the news. Can you explain to us the the concoction of emotions that were going through your body when you were told that you were going to be the next premier of South Australia?
00:32:28:15 - 00:32:29:29
Steven Marshall
MM Well.
00:32:30:16 - 00:32:51:18
Steven Marshall
I was at home in Norwood. The phone rang at about 9:00. It was Jay Weatherill. I said Premier and he said Premier and he said, You're going to really love this job, Congratulations. And he conceded. So I, you know, then it was he went off and did his speeches, you know, and of course they'd been in for a long time.
00:32:51:18 - 00:33:14:07
Steven Marshall
So he, he had quite a lengthy number of people to thank and go through after 16 years in government. So I didn't really get to make my speech to very late in the night. And I kept it pretty brief, really, but just thanking people that had, you know, voted for us, that believed in us, and that we really wanted to sort of have a new dawn for South Australia, you know, a restart.
00:33:15:01 - 00:33:35:14
Steven Marshall
We didn't want to be a government that sort of marked time. We really wanted to shift the dial and we wanted to start straight away. And so, you know, my first meeting the next morning was at 7:00, as it always was on a Sunday morning with Rob Lucas, who was my shadow treasurer and then ultimately my treasurer. So I think we met for nine years straight every.
00:33:36:03 - 00:33:44:26
Steven Marshall
Sunday, boring ago. So I should have got all this loyalty across. I would have been exactly do.
00:33:45:08 - 00:33:55:07
Daniel Franco
But like that I'm just trying to cast my mind to the moment that Jay's name came up on your phone. Did you punch the air? Did you do something? Did you have a glass or what did you do? Did you.
00:33:55:08 - 00:33:56:19
Steven Marshall
Like. No, I look I look.
00:33:56:25 - 00:34:21:04
Steven Marshall
Obviously, you know, I mean, it's a feeling of relief, pride, anticipation and a little bit of trepidation about what was, you know, coming ahead. The liberals hadn't been in for 16 years. We did. We only had one person in the cabinet that had ever had any cabinet experience before. Wow. So we had, you know, wild ambition, but not a lot of experience in delivering.
00:34:21:04 - 00:34:38:19
Steven Marshall
And so it was really we wanted to be might make sure that we hit the ground running and that we did it in a way that wasn't going to embarrass how our team. I work with a guy called Wayne Eagleson, who is chief of staff to to New Zealand prime ministers, and he helped us manage that transition into government.
00:34:38:19 - 00:35:07:12
Steven Marshall
And, you know, getting that sort of expert advice was absolutely fantastic. And setting up those cabinet processes was also really well supported by the Cabinet Office. And in fact, the entire public service. So we couldn't have been more delighted. There was a lot of work that had been done by the public service in anticipation of a government, a change in government, which they do every election, not just for that one.
00:35:07:23 - 00:35:20:02
Steven Marshall
And so the the public service had prepared a lot of work for us around if we were successful with the policies that we had, what sort of decisions we needed to make. And it was a pleasure to work with them.
00:35:21:27 - 00:35:22:23
Daniel Franco
During your dad.
00:35:23:20 - 00:35:24:24
Steven Marshall
Well, Dad came on the night.
00:35:24:24 - 00:35:26:23
Daniel Franco
He came in the night. What do you say? What did your parents say?
00:35:26:23 - 00:35:42:24
Steven Marshall
Oh, he was he was very, uh, he was very excited. He was very excited. He started off a labor voter. Yeah. In fact, his parents only ever voted. Labor and my mother's parents only ever voted Labor. But he was. He was very excited.
00:35:42:24 - 00:35:43:19
Daniel Franco
What did he say to you?
00:35:44:04 - 00:35:49:26
Steven Marshall
I can't remember exactly what he said. He wasn't a man of a lot of words, I'll be quite honest with you.
00:35:50:03 - 00:35:51:02
Daniel Franco
So not lucky, son.
00:35:51:15 - 00:35:51:26
So.
00:35:52:12 - 00:36:15:23
Steven Marshall
Yeah, I got this sort of my, uh, sort of loquacious this from my mother, not from my father. He was a man of few words, but he was a man of action. And he'd been he wasn't in particularly good health, but he'd been out, you know, on the polls all day helping Matt Cowdrey, fantastic candidate down in the seat of Carlton.
00:36:15:28 - 00:36:16:14
Daniel Franco
Where I live.
00:36:16:22 - 00:36:23:10
Steven Marshall
It's fantastic, fantastic area. And so he'd been out there all day.
00:36:23:21 - 00:36:24:17
Steven Marshall
He was a huge.
00:36:24:17 - 00:36:29:08
Steven Marshall
Fan of Matt Cowdrey and we won that seat and we won government.
00:36:29:14 - 00:36:31:04
Daniel Franco
It's good to think Matt. Still hold that.
00:36:31:04 - 00:36:31:28
Steven Marshall
Absolutely.
00:36:32:04 - 00:36:36:01
Daniel Franco
Did what did your children say?
00:36:37:15 - 00:36:40:16
Steven Marshall
Uh, they weren't.
00:36:40:16 - 00:36:49:11
Steven Marshall
Here because let me just think about I think Charlie was interstate and Georgie was overseas.
00:36:49:12 - 00:36:49:22
Daniel Franco
Okay.
00:36:50:03 - 00:36:50:27
Steven Marshall
So, uh.
00:36:51:02 - 00:36:51:20
Daniel Franco
Phone call.
00:36:53:16 - 00:36:55:22
Steven Marshall
It would look like there would.
00:36:55:22 - 00:37:11:26
Steven Marshall
Have been lots of phone calls. Yeah, No, look, it was. It was. It was a massive. And Charlie came down for the swearing in ceremony. George was living in England at the time, so she was happy doing a gap year, uh, working at the Exeter Cathedral School. So she loved that. And, uh, she stayed over there.
00:37:12:05 - 00:37:25:27
Daniel Franco
Did did imposter syndrome kick in at all? Did you ever think, Well, what the hell am I doing here? Like, how did this happen? How did I get here? Or were you so set on your goals that you were sure it was going to happen?
00:37:25:27 - 00:37:49:23
Steven Marshall
No, I never really felt that. I mean, you know, I really felt we had prepared as much as anybody could for government. And, uh, and there were still some negotiations that week. So I swore myself into about ten portfolios on the first day. And with, with, with Vicki Chapman, the Deputy Premier and the Attorney-General and and Rob Lucas as the Treasurer.
00:37:50:02 - 00:38:08:27
Steven Marshall
So the three of us sort of, if you like, ran the mechanics of government for the first week and then we had the full Cabinet sworn in later in that week, but we wanted to make decisions and get on and we still had a few changes in the overall portfolios that we wanted to affect before we, we, we, we swore in the Cabinet so that that happened.
00:38:09:09 - 00:38:11:15
Steven Marshall
Um, and then we were.
00:38:12:06 - 00:38:13:06
Steven Marshall
We were off. Well.
00:38:13:18 - 00:38:39:18
Daniel Franco
What happened in the first few, you obviously had to set everything up, but was there anything that you and I'm going to go like fool Hollywood here, you know when you in the in the movies where the the the what is it the was the president in front of us there was the president of the United States get sworn in and all of a sudden the the confidentiality stuff comes in lands on the desk.
00:38:39:18 - 00:38:45:26
Daniel Franco
Was there anything like that when you get sworn in, do you do learn stuff that you never would have had access to?
00:38:46:29 - 00:38:57:20
Steven Marshall
Not day one. But of course, you have to be sworn in by the governor. So she then, like was the governor at the time an excellent governor for South Australia. And, you know, it's a it's an important ceremony.
00:38:57:22 - 00:38:58:00
Daniel Franco
Yeah.
00:38:58:16 - 00:39:06:11
Steven Marshall
And so you do swear an oath of allegiance. Yeah, but no, there's no there's no keys to a magic box with the.
00:39:06:23 - 00:39:24:10
Daniel Franco
Is there a anything on that. It's like after ten years you can talk about it or like what were some of those interesting things. Did they, did they blow your mind? Did you sit there and go, Holy hell, I didn't even I did not ever think that could be. I Was there anything that sort of threw you off guard?
00:39:24:11 - 00:39:54:17
Steven Marshall
I think if if I look back at the early briefings, the one that really, you know, shook me slightly was the the degree to which our data was being attacked and the vulnerability of systems. Because if you think about it, we are we've seen in recent times with major attacks, you massive companies like Woolworths and Optus that, you know, we are particularly vulnerable.
00:39:54:17 - 00:40:15:18
Steven Marshall
And I remember the first briefing on the number of attacks or threats to our our data and I thought we really need to massively improve the security in this area. But as big as the threat is, I also thought as a businessman, that's an opportunity. Yeah, you know, if we've got this problem, so is everybody. Yeah. And how can we turn that into something that creates jobs and opportunity?
00:40:15:18 - 00:40:26:25
Steven Marshall
Businesses start up scale up in Australia in cyber, and that's one of the reasons why we established Lock 14 and the Cyber Collaboration Center. It's um, there's, there's two sides to problems.
00:40:26:25 - 00:40:50:08
Daniel Franco
Absolutely. What's a good segue way because the next question was going to be about that. So you ran a reformist government in your short time, you ran a whole bunch of initiatives, you know, economic growth, job creation, trade opportunities, infrastructure development, renewable energy, health care. But there was one thing that really stood out for me and that I love.
00:40:50:08 - 00:41:17:24
Daniel Franco
And I know that a lot of people here in South Australia love, but it was fostering a state of innovation, fostering a state of entrepreneurship, which you saw the establishment of Lot 14, which is an innovation and cultural precinct in Adelaide aiming at attracting global company start ups, research institutions, you name it. So that was really exciting. Tell me your thoughts about how and why you set that up and what your vision and ultimate vision was for South Australia.
00:41:18:04 - 00:41:25:05
Daniel Franco
There was words around, Well, we want to be the next Silicon Valley, we want to do this when we do that. But I want to know what your ultimate thought was in that space.
00:41:26:00 - 00:41:46:16
Steven Marshall
We've got to get back to what we inherited. We inherited a state that was just underperforming. So every time the population growth statistics came out, we were at the back of the back of the peloton. You know, every time the economic growth statistics came out, we were just getting further and further away from the fast growth states and we weren't going to change the direction of South Australia by doing the same thing slightly more efficiently.
00:41:46:16 - 00:42:06:24
Steven Marshall
We needed to change the direction. I thought what we needed to do was to focus on future industries. So defense based cyber machine learning, blockchain, ag tech, hydrogen, renewable sector, creative sector, these are the sectors that are employing lots of people now and are very likely to employ even more people into the future. And I think a lot of those sectors were completely up for grabs.
00:42:07:05 - 00:42:07:23
Steven Marshall
But we needed.
00:42:07:23 - 00:42:07:29
Steven Marshall
That.
00:42:08:16 - 00:42:34:25
Steven Marshall
If you like. We needed a catalyst to actually bring those people to South Australia. Now the previous government had made the decision to move the Royal Adelaide Hospital from its original site up to the other end of North Terrace. I essentially sold off that site for a housing development. I just thought we've got plenty of other land in South Australia, private sector land that we could sell to property developers.
00:42:34:25 - 00:42:56:09
Steven Marshall
This is seven hectares in the center of the city. How often does that opportunity come up? Once it's sold off, you never get it back. And so we negotiated. We got that land back and then we set about creating, I think, you know, the most exciting urban renewal project in the country, but most importantly, one that was focused on those future industries.
00:42:56:09 - 00:43:18:06
Steven Marshall
So the Australian student machine learning within the University of Adelaide was already there on site. So it was a good anchor. What we needed to do was to build on that. So as you know now we have the Australian Cyber Collaboration Center, we have the Australian Space Agency, we have the Smart Satellite Cooperative Research Center, the largest space for the research program in the history of Australia.
00:43:18:06 - 00:43:24:19
Steven Marshall
The stone and chalk. Yes, I think there are currently 1700 people working on that. So it was down there yesterday.
00:43:24:20 - 00:43:26:20
Daniel Franco
Yeah, it's an amazing precinct.
00:43:26:20 - 00:43:41:23
Steven Marshall
The great tour of the of the new Commonwealth Bank. Yeah. That site there which is looking at all their and data. So they've got room for 150 people on lot 14. And when I speaking to their managers over from Sydney they love that.
00:43:41:23 - 00:43:42:28
Daniel Franco
Site and they.
00:43:42:28 - 00:43:57:10
Steven Marshall
Love it because of that spontaneous interaction which occurs between themselves and other forward leaning innovation oriented businesses. They could sit up anywhere. Yeah, but they love that interaction.
00:43:57:10 - 00:44:04:15
Daniel Franco
You can definitely feel the buzz when you walk through there. Adrian Turnbull, who is a friend of yours now.
00:44:04:15 - 00:44:05:03
Steven Marshall
Productivity.
00:44:05:04 - 00:44:28:07
Daniel Franco
And he is the South Australian chair of the South Australian Productivity Commission, spoke recently at a conference and is a he's a massive fan of the show. He's been on here twice as well on this podcast. We've interviewed him as the CEO of Thompson Gear and be as as the chair of the Safe Productivity Commission on the podcast where we chatted to him as the Productivity Commission.
00:44:28:07 - 00:44:48:20
Daniel Franco
He questioned the return on investment of Lot 14. He says, I can't see the data, I can't see the statistics. And he questioned the the way it was set up and asked the question, do we actually need it? I'm I'd love for you to rebuttal that and have a have a response if you want to play some tennis with Adrian.
00:44:49:09 - 00:45:15:27
Steven Marshall
Oh, you know, he's a very successful lawyer and runs a massive national company. And we selected him as our Productivity Commissioner, our second Productivity Commission. We set up the Productivity Commission in South Australia. I mean, you got to understand governments intervene best when there is market failure. There had been 40, 50 years of market failure in South Australia where we were not attracting the global companies.
00:45:15:27 - 00:45:39:00
Steven Marshall
Yeah, that is a fact. Since Locke 14, I mean you look at that, the, the, the top 50 tech companies in the world and how many of them have actually now set up in South Australia and they will all put it down to Lot 14 in the and, and the environment, the ecosystem that we have created. So I don't know what else brought them here or they.
00:45:39:14 - 00:45:44:04
Daniel Franco
They coming here and setting up, they're not setting up head offices, they're setting up satellite offices.
00:45:44:04 - 00:45:52:03
Steven Marshall
Look, you're never going to have, you know, Salesforce sell their property in San Francisco and move to Adelaide. Yeah, that's a start.
00:45:52:03 - 00:45:54:00
Daniel Franco
But they've got a bigger office in Sydney, don't they?
00:45:54:10 - 00:46:17:28
Steven Marshall
Sure. But you know, we didn't even have these companies in South Australia previously and if you look at the size of some of these offices now, they are really growing, getting larger and larger and that's what's keeping young South Australians here. The other point is, you know, we don't give them space on Lot 14 at no charge. We get full commercial return.
00:46:18:25 - 00:46:46:02
Steven Marshall
So there's I mean we will make, you know, a profit. Yeah. Out of lot 14 we will get a commercial return out of Lot 14 How many government programs can you say that that's occurred. So it's not like when Amazon, the largest company in the world, moves to Adelaide that they're being subsidized by the taxpayers. And this is the difference again between Labor and Liberal yeah, I mean we heard under previous governments that, you know, this company was coming here and we found out that it was a massive subsidy to bring them here.
00:46:46:16 - 00:47:05:22
Steven Marshall
Apart from the very first global firm that we negotiated to bring to South Australia, Accenture, one of the largest consulting firms in the world. Apart from them, all the rest came without that government in center of paying per job because we just didn't think that was a very good way to sell your state. Yeah, we're not very efficient, so we're going to pay you to come to South Australia.
00:47:05:29 - 00:47:33:28
Steven Marshall
We were quite often up against other states who were subsidizing jobs to get them to move to Western Sydney or to Queensland. Victoria. We didn't do that in South Australia because we would rather actually create that ecosystem, that environment. So now we've got, you know, Accenture, we've got Cognizant, we've got Imtech, we've got Elvis, we've got Salesforce, we've got IWC, we've got the big consulting firms like Deloitte and TWC setting up massive offices in South Australia.
00:47:34:29 - 00:47:37:28
Steven Marshall
And that's a great thing to keep our young people here.
00:47:37:28 - 00:48:05:11
Daniel Franco
It's a great thing. However, there's always two sides of the coin. Yes, and local business here has suffered by the introduction, not not suffered like bleeding profusely, you know, But there are these big multinational companies coming here to South Australia and there is a war on talent and therefore they have the ability to actually pay more and attract more.
00:48:05:11 - 00:48:28:12
Daniel Franco
They have a better brand or bigger brand or a differently view brand than what some smaller businesses are. And, you know, I've had I know many young start up companies, 50 to 100 staff, 20 to 50 staff doing quite well, having their people taken away by the Accenture's of the world, offering them 50 to 70 grand more in some aspects.
00:48:29:24 - 00:48:39:27
Daniel Franco
I'm not trying to sit here and go, Well, we don't want these companies coming in, but when they say they're going to create a thousand jobs, they are potentially stealing from some of the smaller businesses.
00:48:39:27 - 00:49:01:28
Steven Marshall
No, I don't buy that at all. I mean, if you when we came to government, I mean, what we had was a net outflow from South Australia. So the difference between those leaving, those coming back, you know, five, six, seven, almost 8000 per year, we've now got a net migration to South Australia. So the overall term turnaround is sort of seven, eight, 9000 per year extra people available for those jobs in South.
00:49:01:28 - 00:49:10:10
Daniel Franco
Well those extra people coming back where they people in the generation of 20 to 30 year olds or 30 to 40 or whether they the 50 plus, it's a.
00:49:10:10 - 00:49:28:10
Steven Marshall
Combination of people not leaving because they got an internship or a job in South Australia. And a lot of people returning, you know, people for lifestyle reasons saying, do you know what, I thought I could only get a job like this in Sydney. I've sort of made my life there or in Singapore, Hong Kong or wherever, but actually I can do that from Adelaide.
00:49:28:10 - 00:49:52:07
Steven Marshall
Now, one, because I think COVID taught us that you could actually live where you were know. But, but also because I think that there are just you know, there are global companies here in South Australia. I mean, it wasn't that long ago that there were there were no top listed companies in a very few top 100 listed companies, you know, based in South Australia.
00:49:52:07 - 00:50:21:00
Steven Marshall
But I think that not only do we have strong growth in the larger end of the spectrum, but we've got a lot of a lot of opportunities coming through and that's good. This is going to be a war for talent everywhere. If you don't want to war for talent, go somewhere where nobody wants to live. And but if you can become an attract door of talent, and I think that's what's happened when you look at some of the consulting firms I was speaking with one the other day, 25% of their employees have actually moved from interstate.
00:50:21:01 - 00:50:44:24
Steven Marshall
They're already working with a company just moved from interstate. That's a great, I think, tech for the ecosystem that we have in South Australia, but also the enviable lifestyle. You know, people feel that they can get a good health care system, they can get a good education system. You know, it's a clean environment. It's focused on sustainability where not every place in the country, every place in the world is.
00:50:45:04 - 00:50:53:26
Steven Marshall
And I think people also just like that lifestyle around the creative sector that we have in South Australia, the arts and and sport and just enjoying life, livability.
00:50:54:09 - 00:51:34:19
Daniel Franco
It is a beautiful place to live. I am really interested in the the culture that you created within your team and within the South Australian community. Did you? I mean the company that I work for, Synergy IQ I represent is a company that focuses large scale and complex change, change for business, change for community. And in in a way to help grow, attract the right talent, create meaningful journey along along the along the road.
00:51:36:01 - 00:51:50:14
Daniel Franco
I'm interested in understanding your thought processes as you were creating this change and you were trying to reform South Australia. Did you have a keen eye on creating the right culture and the conditions so this could be successful and how did you play that out?
00:51:51:01 - 00:51:57:29
Steven Marshall
I think being really clear about your strategy. So obviously in a in a state like South Australia, you have a large.
00:51:58:07 - 00:51:59:21
Steven Marshall
Public service.
00:52:00:12 - 00:52:14:17
Steven Marshall
And trying to shift that the direction of that ship does take some time. But we were really well supported by senior management within the public service and also by the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment, Emma Ranieri, and we.
00:52:15:04 - 00:52:15:20
Steven Marshall
Yeah, she's.
00:52:15:20 - 00:52:17:12
Daniel Franco
Great, She's been on the show, we.
00:52:17:12 - 00:52:23:00
Steven Marshall
We, we, we simplified the reporting structure so I think we went from 45.
00:52:23:13 - 00:52:23:28
Steven Marshall
Odd.
00:52:24:27 - 00:52:46:12
Steven Marshall
Portfolios down to 14 and we basically had a scenario where we had a minister, a chief executive in a department. So we tried not we try not to have that situation that existed before and exists right around Australian politics where chief executives are reporting to two or three or in some cases six separate ministers. It doesn't create those logical reporting lines.
00:52:47:08 - 00:52:50:13
Steven Marshall
And so we went back to a reasonably old fashioned structure. So we had.
00:52:50:21 - 00:52:51:12
Steven Marshall
A Treasurer.
00:52:51:20 - 00:52:58:15
Steven Marshall
And an attorney general and an education minister and a health minister and I didn't have seven other portfolios.
00:52:58:15 - 00:53:01:03
Daniel Franco
Yeah, so simplification, simplification.
00:53:01:14 - 00:53:41:11
Steven Marshall
Clear lines of reporting. We met as a Cabinet twice per week, which is quite unusual for a government and the public service, the senior management Council also met very regularly, at least weekly and again in a sort of a slimmed down version. But we did have subcommittees that set off the Senior Management Council and also of the state Cabinet, and it seemed to work well because we could be in by meeting twice per week and working as a cabinet, a real cabinet government, then I think that people were on the same page fairly quickly.
00:53:41:11 - 00:53:48:21
Steven Marshall
And I've got to say my Cabinet colleagues, I think all worked extra extremely hard and they were very supportive of each other.
00:53:49:21 - 00:54:16:02
Daniel Franco
Do you think you had the right culture within the team itself? As in do you think you had the right mix of people all working towards the same vision? You talked about this. You're not going to get everyone aligned because that's the point of the liberal. Did you work hard at getting everyone on the same page? Did you work hard on the culture within the team, your team, and making sure that everyone was attracted to the vision that you were trying to create?
00:54:16:08 - 00:54:44:03
Steven Marshall
So obviously there's two parts to your team in government. One is the cabinet. So the other people that you see very often and then there's the remainder of your party, which includes some assistant ministers, but also, you know, people that don't have portfolios. And that's a much larger team. Correct? That was more difficult, obviously, with with COVID to keep in touch with those people face to face on a on a regular basis, which would have occurred if we didn't have COVID.
00:54:44:22 - 00:55:00:18
Steven Marshall
But certainly from a Cabinet perspective, we had, I think, you know, very strong solidarity to borrow the labor term. And I mean, proof of that is we didn't have a leak from the shadow cabinet or cabinet in the nine years that I was the leader.
00:55:01:18 - 00:55:32:29
Daniel Franco
Very good. You just mentioned COVID. We can't have a conversation without talking about this period. Obviously, you will you will forever be known as the Premier. You took South Australia through the pandemic, the one in 100 year, the last 100, the 100 year old pandemic to which your popularity rose to new heights. It was the first time, I think, in my life that, you know, politicians had more Instagram views and likes and Facebook likes than than some celebrities.
00:55:33:00 - 00:56:07:15
Daniel Franco
So there was a lot of rise to your popularity and the work that you were doing. I wouldn't want casting our minds back to February 2020 or January 2020 and where the bubble of information was starting to curdle and you you were getting fed information constantly about what was happening overseas, Italy, China, all the above. What was going through your mind in the early stages as you started to learn more and more about this pandemic?
00:56:08:12 - 00:56:31:20
Steven Marshall
All in the early stages, we were just trying to gather more information so we heard initially in probably January 2020 about the situation that was occurring in China. We had very soon thereafter we were hearing about Italy, we're hearing about Spain. This was very worrying. We were having Coburg meetings, Council of Australian Government meetings with the Prime Minister.
00:56:31:20 - 00:56:51:25
Steven Marshall
The other state premiers and the Territory chief ministers. We were getting more and more information, but in the early stages we didn't know much about this virus, we didn't know much about how it was transmitted, we didn't know much about what the consequences were. There was certainly no vaccination.
00:56:52:16 - 00:56:57:18
Daniel Franco
And what was the information you're getting fed by when you said we didn't know much about it, what were you being told?
00:56:57:24 - 00:57:36:26
Steven Marshall
Well, obviously, it was a respiratory issue with, you know, varying degrees of transmissibility. And in the early days, what we were most concerned about was being prepared to have the right response. So what we wanted to do was to, if you like, push the front in Australia, out as far into the future as possible so that we could put all of the the right human resources and physical resources and medical responses in place for when that when it eventually came to Australia.
00:57:36:26 - 00:58:00:07
Steven Marshall
And so one of the things that we did is the National Cabinet was to put that international border control in place and that really did create a situation where we weren't going to have the scenes that we saw in New York with mass graves being dug overnight, people's bodies being stored in, you know, mobile refrigerated vans.
00:58:00:07 - 00:58:00:16
Daniel Franco
Yeah.
00:58:00:28 - 00:58:32:14
Steven Marshall
So we really did buy ourselves some time to get the right number of nurses, hospital beds, respiration, respiratory capability in place and learn more from those other, you know, front edge countries about how they controlled the disease, how it transmitted. You know, in the early days it was about washing your hands. And then we learned much more about face masks and then ultimately about vaccination.
00:58:33:07 - 00:58:45:18
Steven Marshall
But they were yeah, they were worrying times. And, you know, we were we were basically building the the plane while it was flying. I think Australia's response overall was, you know, certainly amongst the best in the in the world.
00:58:46:07 - 00:59:09:11
Daniel Franco
Did you time chat to your kids and go actually this is something we should be worried about. Like when was when did the rubber hit the road for you? Because I remember early on, I remember early February worry there was some staff members looking at the statistics online and looking at what it was doing and tracking it. And and I almost sort of cast it off.
00:59:09:15 - 00:59:37:12
Daniel Franco
And this is just a storm in a teacup. It's not going to go, I'm here, we'll be right and then come, you know, march my heart. I went to Sydney in in March 2020 for the AZT conference and it was all anyone was speaking about at the conference. And on the way while I was there, I actually thought to myself of not taking this seriously enough to it was there at any point where you thought, Yeah, we'll be right.
00:59:37:22 - 00:59:41:24
Daniel Franco
I'm not going to worry about it too much. Or did you just weren't you weren't allowed to think that way.
00:59:41:25 - 01:00:15:21
Steven Marshall
I probably had better insight than most in the country earlier than than most. We had a a co meeting which ultimately decided to form the national cabinet to meet on a regular basis in early March 2020. And that was really an interesting debut because we had the chief medical officer coming in in the morning to address Coex saying, look, we we think we're going to have to put some controls in place in terms of density and, you know, trying to reduce proximity of people coming into contact with each other to slow the disease at some point in the future.
01:00:16:06 - 01:00:34:23
Steven Marshall
And he came in in the afternoon. He said, yeah, we're probably gonna have to do that in the next few days. Yeah. So it was, it was, you know, the morning was sort of some weeks out or when we get to a certain tipping point and then in the afternoon it had changed. So more information was coming in to the Chief Medical officer Brendan Murphy, and into the HPC.
01:00:35:20 - 01:00:46:01
Steven Marshall
The the Australian Health Principles Protection Committee. So it was, it was, it was a it was a worrying time. But I.
01:00:46:01 - 01:00:46:11
Steven Marshall
Was.
01:00:46:12 - 01:01:11:11
Steven Marshall
Always felt that Australia would have a good response. We weren't burying our head in the sand. We wanted to protect our population. This infuriated a lot of people with the closing of international borders, but ultimately that just saved countless numbers of lives. And when we had closed borders and we saw what was happening in the rest of the world, I think most reasonable Australians sort of thought to themselves, well, that was a good precautionary measure.
01:01:11:11 - 01:01:24:03
Steven Marshall
Now we've got to work out the way to get out of the situation. We can't keep our borders closed forever. Yeah, but as a precautionary principle, that was what had to happen at that point in time. And Scott Morrison made that decision.
01:01:25:00 - 01:01:33:12
Daniel Franco
It felt, though we started off with the message is let's slow the curve. And then it turned to let's eradicate this thing. Why did that transition happen?
01:01:34:11 - 01:01:59:21
Steven Marshall
Well, I think because we learned more about what we saw, those death rates overseas and we had the opportunity to essentially remove the curve in places like South Australia and Tasmania and Western Australia, not so much in Sydney and Melbourne. So if you think about it, Sydney, Melbourne, I mean, I Melbourne had the longest lockdown in the history of anywhere.
01:01:59:21 - 01:02:04:10
Daniel Franco
Yeah, yeah. There's a bit of post-traumatic stress going on over there in Melbourne at the moment.
01:02:04:13 - 01:02:05:24
Steven Marshall
That's my son is going to move, you.
01:02:06:17 - 01:02:09:08
Daniel Franco
Know, those who went through the COVID.
01:02:09:09 - 01:02:11:23
Steven Marshall
Experience. So, you know.
01:02:13:05 - 01:02:13:20
Steven Marshall
There were just.
01:02:14:05 - 01:02:50:01
Steven Marshall
Countless unnecessary deaths that we saw on the television screen from overseas. And look, as Australians, if we can prevent that, then we wanted to do that. And that was the decision of the the National Cabinet. But having said that, each state operated independently of each other in terms of our own state borders. And we knew that in South Australia we would do best in terms of our economy, education, of our children, our overall long term mental health, um, you know, if we could keep it out for as long as possible and that's the, that's the stance that we took.
01:02:51:14 - 01:03:20:14
Daniel Franco
You were, you were thrusted into the media every day, like every day it was yourself. Nicholas Beria and the commissioner, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens. It got to the point where I think as a South Australian, seeing you three on the TV started giving me anxiety. It was and I appreciate more than anyone make clear constant communication is something that was needed throughout.
01:03:20:14 - 01:03:42:27
Daniel Franco
And so I think you guys handled it very, very well. Being on the TV every single day, communicating, communicating, communicating. But the negative impact that it had on me was the numbers, hearing the numbers, hearing what was going to happen, hearing how things were going to shut down. It was like it did it affected me personally and affected a number of people who I speak to.
01:03:44:09 - 01:04:10:25
Daniel Franco
How did you manage? I being in the media every single day, and how did you also manage knowing that it was having an adverse effect on multiple different things other than the sickness? So those people who were being locked down or shut down or confined to a space with in an unsafe environment, you know, we saw a rise in mental health cases all the all the above.
01:04:11:07 - 01:04:19:25
Daniel Franco
How did you as a leadership team and as the Premier of South Australia, manage that talk within yourselves?
01:04:21:02 - 01:04:38:03
Steven Marshall
So from day one, when the Emergency Management Council met Dr. Chris McGowan, who was the head of SA Health at the time, said, Look, there are three things that we've got to do. One is we've got to push this off into the future as positive as as far as possible. Number two is that we need to build up our resources in South Australia.
01:04:38:03 - 01:04:59:26
Steven Marshall
Number three, we need to have clear and constant communication with the people of South Australia. We wanted to have an evidence based, science based response. We weren't telling anybody to drink bleach or other sort of remedies that political leaders around the world sort of had suggested might work. So we wanted to provide that information every day. Some people found that helpful.
01:05:00:01 - 01:05:24:27
Steven Marshall
There would be people that didn't find it helpful. But when you're asking people to, you know, change the way that they live, the way that they work, the way that they interact, you've got to give them a reason to do it. And so we thought that the daily press conference, which we tried to keep reasonably short, but of course media is what it is and they've got a thousand million questions that they wanted answered.
01:05:24:27 - 01:05:51:12
Steven Marshall
And so we just submitted ourselves to that every day in terms of decisions. Look, you're never going to find a set of decisions during a global pandemic which is going to advantage everybody. So we had to sort of satisfy ourselves with what is in the best interests of South Australia as a whole. And again, I just say, look, in terms of how we performed relative to just about anywhere else in the world, I would take our results.
01:05:51:12 - 01:06:23:28
Steven Marshall
In South Australia, by and large, people were allowed to move around, they were allowed to go to work. There were crippling density issues in some in some businesses and the CBD particularly was affected. But the reality is overall as a state we function much better than most other states. I mean, take for example, school. I think our students missed just a handful of days for the entire two year period, whereas there were just terms time after time after time.
01:06:24:15 - 01:06:47:25
Steven Marshall
New South Wales and Victoria where kids were just being homeschooled. Now you think about the implications of that, parents having to look after kids at home, not being able to go more than a kilometer from your own house, only for 30 minutes or an hour each day. I mean, these and they didn't they were living in, you know, high level density environments in those places relative to many people in South Australia.
01:06:47:25 - 01:07:17:04
Steven Marshall
So it wasn't perfect. No management of any pandemic of it was. But what a good, I thought, leadership approach with, you know, the police commissioner, who was ultimately the state coordinator during the major emergency declaration, Nicola Spurrier and her team. And it was a very large team because she wasn't just the chief public health officer, but she, you know, coordinated a lot of response within the department, people like Tom Dodd, who was the clinical leader.
01:07:17:09 - 01:07:27:07
Steven Marshall
So pathology, incredible responses. And of course, you know, myself from the cabinet chair perspective of making sure that we could get the right resources in the right place.
01:07:28:08 - 01:07:52:18
Daniel Franco
How is the relationship between you and the team? And I'm talking particularly you and Nicola Spurrier and Grant Stevens had the there was obviously a few different things written about. You and, you know, innuendo don't really know. But there was the relationship might be scarred Nicola had majority of because she was health grant. You know I was I was sort of put his foot down in certain aspects.
01:07:52:21 - 01:07:55:29
Daniel Franco
You put your foot down in certain aspects. How did you, how did you manage that?
01:07:56:00 - 01:07:56:04
Steven Marshall
Yeah.
01:07:56:05 - 01:08:07:15
Steven Marshall
Well, we all knew what our role was and you know, there's no rulebook for this. Yeah. And we got along very well and we still get along very well.
01:08:07:29 - 01:08:09:25
Daniel Franco
So go out for dinner with them.
01:08:10:18 - 01:08:11:20
Steven Marshall
I caught up with Nicola Spurrier.
01:08:11:20 - 01:08:12:16
Steven Marshall
Every Saturday night.
01:08:12:16 - 01:08:13:04
So. Yeah.
01:08:14:15 - 01:08:15:04
Steven Marshall
So look.
01:08:15:12 - 01:08:51:04
Steven Marshall
You know, absolutely they are heroes for South Australia. I mean, they operated at the highest level for an extended period of time under enormous pressure I would take my team over any other team in Australia and any other team in the world. I think that they worked extraordinarily well, but a lot of that was because high level communication between the three of us and uh, and as I said, you know, they had to go through enormous periods, very long periods of very worrying periods.
01:08:52:05 - 01:09:02:10
Steven Marshall
But I think that, you know, overall South Australia did particularly well and a lot of that came down to everybody knowing what their role in the overall management of the emergency was.
01:09:04:06 - 01:09:26:15
Daniel Franco
We we did very well here in South Australia, right? We got through relatively unscathed. Was there ever a point where the it was almost at being catastrophic that you thought, holy hell, we could be like Melbourne. Was there ever a point or do we have it in control though?
01:09:26:15 - 01:09:38:23
Steven Marshall
No, we had it in control when we saw the situation deteriorate interstate. We closed our state border with Victoria. That was decisive. It had to be done. It annoyed a lot of people and inconvenienced a lot of people, particularly living on the on the border.
01:09:38:23 - 01:09:39:01
Daniel Franco
Yeah.
01:09:40:00 - 01:09:58:02
Steven Marshall
But again, you know, you know that, inconvenience compared to a statewide shutdown would have you've got to weigh up all of these various options. But no, I never once thought that we would end up in a situation like Victoria or New South Wales.
01:09:58:02 - 01:09:59:15
Daniel Franco
What about with pizza guys?
01:10:00:05 - 01:10:10:00
Steven Marshall
Well, there's a classic example and we took that precautionary response. We said to people, Look, with the information that we've got available at the moment, we're going to have to you know.
01:10:10:09 - 01:10:11:03
Steven Marshall
We've we've got to.
01:10:11:22 - 01:10:28:15
Steven Marshall
Get in touch with and trace this number of people. When we found out that it wasn't actually just a purchase of a pizza, the guy was working right alongside the guy. Well, then it massively reduced the number of people that we to trace. And, you know, we reduced that, you know, instantly. Now, the media can portray it the way that they like.
01:10:28:15 - 01:10:36:28
Steven Marshall
But we had, you know, an evidence based response to the initial threat. And then once it had scaled down, we changed.
01:10:36:28 - 01:10:42:00
Daniel Franco
So what actually happened there in the guard? Did someone lie about working at the.
01:10:42:15 - 01:10:49:08
Steven Marshall
So the initial information that we got was that this person, the transmission, it occurred by somebody going in and purchasing a pizza, a pizza.
01:10:49:08 - 01:10:49:29
Daniel Franco
And it was on the box.
01:10:49:29 - 01:10:54:02
Steven Marshall
And we're sort of thinking, well, okay, well, who are all the people that have, you know, could have.
01:10:54:09 - 01:10:54:25
Steven Marshall
Purchased.
01:10:54:25 - 01:11:10:14
Steven Marshall
A pizza and also have the disease transmitted over that period of time that the person who was infected was working at that pizza bar? Well, as it turned out, it wasn't somebody that came and bought a pizza. It was somebody who was working alongside them. Yeah. And so it massive.
01:11:10:17 - 01:11:27:06
Daniel Franco
But why was the information false up front? Didn't everyone know that this person was working there or did you. Oh, sorry. Did the transmission come from the. I see what you're saying. So the transmission was from someone who was working there and close contact to them? Yeah, that will happen. Yeah.
01:11:27:08 - 01:11:29:12
Steven Marshall
Yeah. So look, look, the.
01:11:29:12 - 01:11:48:20
Steven Marshall
Reality was we had to act decisively when we knew that there was a problem. We wanted to put a ring around the problem as quickly as possible. So that's what we put in place when we found out that that ring didn't need to be as large and we could do the contact tracing much faster because there were far fewer people.
01:11:48:20 - 01:11:50:07
Steven Marshall
We weren't looking for 40,000 people and.
01:11:50:11 - 01:11:51:15
Steven Marshall
We were looking for eight.
01:11:51:15 - 01:12:05:22
Steven Marshall
Hundred people or whatever it was. I can't remember the numbers anymore. That work was done and then we could get people to go back around their R around their their duties. And look, people in in South Australia by and large, were very, very cooperative. Um.
01:12:06:01 - 01:12:07:06
Steven Marshall
Yeah, well, it's easy to create.
01:12:07:17 - 01:12:30:17
Steven Marshall
It's easy to create names, but the reality was people in South Australia did do the right thing when we said to them what we would really like you to isolate yourself for, you know, seven days or 14 days because you've come into contact with somebody. They did it because they knew that if they didn't do it, the whole state would end up like western New South Wales or or Victoria or ultimately Queensland or Canberra.
01:12:31:18 - 01:12:50:23
Steven Marshall
And we look, we were the first state to open up when we got 80% of the population 16 and over double vaccinated. We were the first state, we moved before Queensland, we moved before Tasmania. There was no point. I mean we obviously moved after New South Wales because of that already open.
01:12:50:23 - 01:12:51:07
Daniel Franco
Yeah, yeah.
01:12:51:12 - 01:12:59:11
Steven Marshall
Because I had nothing to lose. But so we took that, you know, cautious approach. But ultimately when you look back at that period of time.
01:12:59:22 - 01:12:59:28
Daniel Franco
Do you.
01:12:59:28 - 01:13:08:24
Steven Marshall
Think, you know, we maximize the number of people that were employed, our exports, our investment into South Australian kept the economy moving at the same time.
01:13:08:24 - 01:13:13:13
Daniel Franco
Do you think that came back to bite you in the boom? What's that over the Christmas period opening up too early?
01:13:14:06 - 01:13:34:14
Steven Marshall
Well, of course, on The Chronic, yeah, but we'd opened up before our growth was even, you know, reported to the World Health Organization. So you can't you can't have a crystal ball and you couldn't I mean, we've made a commitment to the people of South Australia that once we got to that vaccination level, we would open up. We couldn't have predicted that, you know, a week later on the ground would be discovered internationally.
01:13:34:15 - 01:13:39:14
Steven Marshall
Yeah, You know, so it was what it was. Again, you know, there's no rule.
01:13:39:14 - 01:13:40:16
Daniel Franco
Book. You play the cards.
01:13:40:17 - 01:13:41:24
Steven Marshall
It's a brutal game.
01:13:42:29 - 01:13:58:28
Daniel Franco
So in 2022, the state election, you were not reelected by the people of South Australia, which would have been a very challenging and emotional experience for you. How how were you feeling in 2022 when the results came through?
01:13:59:19 - 01:14:25:15
Steven Marshall
Well, I think, you know, it wasn't like we didn't think that there would be a change in government. Obviously The opposition had campaigned very heavily on the crown, was in a very bad timing window for us over that Christmas year period, you know, weeks out from the state election. So it wasn't completely unexpected. And this is what occurs.
01:14:25:15 - 01:14:51:07
Steven Marshall
It's a brutal game, politics. And so we have challenges of of government. And I think that in South Australia we manage the transition to an alternate government. You know, very professionally. So I think it's great that we live in a in a in a, in an in a country where you can have a change of government. It's not overblow budget or, you know, you know, you've got one government, one day, you've got another government, another day.
01:14:51:08 - 01:14:54:13
Daniel Franco
It's very political answer. Stephen what, how did you feel?
01:14:54:29 - 01:15:21:15
Steven Marshall
Obviously, we'd worked extraordinarily hard over that COVID period and we felt that we had delivered strong reformist agenda, strong economy for South Australia. We had addressed a lot of issues which had been left out for a long period of time. But ultimately people make their decision they can make it on whatever they like to make it on. And so that was the decision that they made.
01:15:21:16 - 01:15:42:18
Daniel Franco
But you were you angry? Were you upset? We like, you know, God, I put all my heart and soul into this. For the past four year past nine years, I've said and achieved what we could and. We got thrown a curve ball of the pandemic. Like, was there ever the the the screaming from the edge of the cliff going, you know, y.
01:15:42:23 - 01:15:58:25
Steven Marshall
You know, sometimes you're the right place at the right time and sometimes you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. And look, if that election was held six months earlier, I think it would have been a very different situation on the polling that was published back then. But it wasn't. It was in March. And I just don't think you can ever look backwards.
01:15:58:25 - 01:16:16:04
Steven Marshall
There's just no point whatsoever in saying if I had have done this differently or if I had done that differently, or if this didn't occur, you just then become bitter, you become the victim. And that's not who I am. So, you know, you don't find me out there commenting on the new government, the new government's agenda. I wish them well.
01:16:16:23 - 01:16:31:02
Steven Marshall
I hope that South Australia can continue to be successful, very proud of the way that we did operate for four years. But ultimately the best thing about Australia is that we do operate in a democracy. Everybody gets a vote, they can have their say.
01:16:31:15 - 01:16:49:16
Daniel Franco
It's a very stoic response. You know, it, it is what it is and I really appreciate that, that the week after the election or when you found out that you were no longer going to be the Premier, what did you do?
01:16:50:19 - 01:16:51:23
Steven Marshall
Well, just to be clear.
01:16:51:23 - 01:17:01:21
Steven Marshall
When you go into the caretaker mode, you basically clear out your office, you pack up all of you. There's nothing you the new premier walks in and same with Jay Weatherill. I mean I walked.
01:17:01:21 - 01:17:02:21
Daniel Franco
In the next day.
01:17:02:21 - 01:17:25:18
Steven Marshall
The very next day, Yeah. And government just continues. So it wasn't as if I had to go in and clean out my office or anything like that. Obviously it was a time to just sort of catch my breath after a very exhausting period. And then I went back into the role of the Leader of the Opposition for the for the next month or so until we had, you know, ballot for the leadership.
01:17:25:18 - 01:17:33:20
Steven Marshall
And so I just sort of set up, uh, the Leader of the Opposition's office again, you know, look, I just got on with it.
01:17:34:22 - 01:17:46:17
Daniel Franco
Was there any, um, introspection or reflection that you've had in the past six months since moving on that you've thought there's a silver lining to this?
01:17:47:10 - 01:18:04:15
Steven Marshall
So as I said, there are politicians around Australia who have lost I mean, have wanted to I suppose, be angry or try to re prosecute the case. I just don't think there's any point in that. Quite frankly. I see some of those people become quite bitter.
01:18:04:18 - 01:18:04:28
Daniel Franco
Yeah.
01:18:04:29 - 01:18:27:18
Steven Marshall
Um, and I just don't want to be in that, that, that boat I feel very proud about with where South Australia is at the moment. And so if I can play some role in us continuing down that track, then why not? So yeah, look, I loved every second of it. It was a, an enormous privilege, an enormous opportunity.
01:18:27:23 - 01:18:31:17
Steven Marshall
Not many people get this opportunity. Only 45 people before me.
01:18:31:17 - 01:18:31:26
Daniel Franco
Yeah.
01:18:32:11 - 01:18:37:21
Steven Marshall
And, uh, so it was a real it was a real privilege. You know, I'm looking forward, not backwards.
01:18:38:08 - 01:19:11:10
Daniel Franco
So it's in these situations, it's very natural to question yourself and question your abilities and really look deep. Good, deep. Li inwardly, deep, inwardly sorry. Was there any learnings that you learned about yourself in this phase? Was there any learnings about how you may have to improve or there was other opportunities out of this or something that you did that you thought, actually, you know, I could have changed that?
01:19:11:23 - 01:19:25:24
Steven Marshall
Look, there's you get choices as politicians every day of the week and um, I would make the decisions that I made. Then again, yes, could have been far more political. Mm. But that's not who I am. I didn't come from.
01:19:26:08 - 01:19:29:29
Steven Marshall
I did. I don't think that would have helped. I really don't think I would have helped.
01:19:30:21 - 01:20:03:14
Steven Marshall
But I, I made the decisions that I made based upon my experiences in life. Running businesses. Yeah. And I, and I tried to do everything could to change the trajectory of the state. Yes, I could have made more political decisions, but that really wouldn't have been true to what I believe in. And so I, um, yeah, I mean, I, you know, if I sat down, I did probably dozens of decisions that I could have made that would have been more politically palatable at the time, but would have that allowed South Australia to move to where it is now?
01:20:03:14 - 01:20:05:24
Steven Marshall
I don't know. I will never know. And I'm not really.
01:20:06:05 - 01:20:09:03
Steven Marshall
All that really focused on that deep.
01:20:09:03 - 01:20:12:09
Steven Marshall
Introspection. I don't know whether that's that's fine.
01:20:12:09 - 01:20:12:18
Daniel Franco
I think.
01:20:12:29 - 01:20:13:11
Steven Marshall
Maybe.
01:20:13:11 - 01:20:14:27
Steven Marshall
Trying to avoid that deep.
01:20:15:14 - 01:20:16:06
Daniel Franco
Suspicion, but.
01:20:16:18 - 01:20:20:06
Steven Marshall
But I just think things happen for a reason. And as I said, moving forward.
01:20:21:08 - 01:20:47:13
Daniel Franco
I'm speaking purely as a civilian and part of the community. When I ask this question and I I'm speaking a point of view of someone who observes body language, and that's part of my role as a And you seemed really tired at the end leading up until election. Were you buggered? Like were you at a point of not being able to go around anymore?
01:20:48:00 - 01:20:48:19
Steven Marshall
Well, look.
01:20:48:27 - 01:21:01:08
Steven Marshall
You know, election campaigns are grueling. It's not like everybody's on your side. You know, in my situation, lots of people were not on our side in the lead up to that election.
01:21:01:08 - 01:21:01:16
Daniel Franco
Yeah.
01:21:01:29 - 01:21:24:15
Steven Marshall
And so, you know, it is it is you know, it is a real gantlet that running every single day, long hours. And not that I'm against long hours, but it's it's it's long hours and extreme pressure and, uh, you know, by the time I got to that final day, you know, definitely. And I think, you know, my political opponent was probably exhausted as well.
01:21:24:18 - 01:21:24:24
Daniel Franco
Yeah.
01:21:25:00 - 01:21:28:03
Steven Marshall
So Um, you know, it is an exhausting process.
01:21:30:09 - 01:21:59:00
Daniel Franco
One thing that you said when you stepped down as the leader of the Liberal Party was that you want to spend more time with your family. I'm, you know. Family, for me, is absolutely core to my values. And one thing that I really am always interested in is how do you realize and fully pursue your visions of what you want to do, the goals that you want to achieve while at the same time trying to cultivate a loving family?
01:21:59:03 - 01:22:13:12
Daniel Franco
Friendships. Can you talk to us about your time and do you think you attributed the time that you would have liked your family when you were leader?
01:22:14:24 - 01:22:36:11
Steven Marshall
I think time is important, but quality is paramount. And so I've got good relationships with all my family, and I think that they understood the task that I had. So it wasn't like I was going to be able to go and watch all of their sporting commitments on the weekend and go and watch movies with them.
01:22:36:11 - 01:22:36:26
Daniel Franco
Did you want to.
01:22:37:11 - 01:22:38:06
Steven Marshall
Um.
01:22:39:25 - 01:23:07:08
Steven Marshall
Yes, it would have been good. But also, you know, I made the decision that I made, um, to pursue a political knowing the implications of that. And it means that there are sacrifices that need to be made, and that's why you just need to pivot, moving away from, you know, quantity to quality. And if you have to be mindful about what that pivot is, it can actually be a positive.
01:23:07:15 - 01:23:13:25
Steven Marshall
MM Because I also make the point that when your kids get to 16 they're not wanting quantity anymore.
01:23:13:25 - 01:23:14:18
Daniel Franco
Yeah, sure.
01:23:14:21 - 01:23:28:15
Steven Marshall
And so quality interactions, you know something if we, if we think we don't have a lot of time so the time that we do have, how are we going to use that? And you and you do and you go through that process. Well, you can have some really good outcomes.
01:23:28:22 - 01:23:30:29
Daniel Franco
So I'm a father of two girls.
01:23:30:29 - 01:23:31:17
Steven Marshall
How old are they?
01:23:31:17 - 01:23:32:01
Daniel Franco
Nine and.
01:23:32:01 - 01:23:33:21
Steven Marshall
11. Yeah, well, they want your time all the time.
01:23:34:00 - 01:23:35:03
Daniel Franco
But I want to be with them.
01:23:35:03 - 01:23:35:12
Steven Marshall
Yeah.
01:23:35:25 - 01:24:12:27
Daniel Franco
But I also want to grow a business and grow a podcast and grow myself. And and so I struggle with trying to figure out what is the right balance of work and family life. And my default is family, sometimes to the detriment of what I could do from a business point of view. So then with that in mind, I then almost the pendulum the other way and go for work mode and I just I'm struggling with this balance.
01:24:14:12 - 01:24:32:08
Daniel Franco
Did you maintain your balance well or did you feel like it was just did you communicate with your family and friends that, look, I am going heavy year and I will be and what during my time, like what? What was the communication methods and how did you manage those conversations?
01:24:32:23 - 01:24:33:16
Steven Marshall
Yeah, I can't.
01:24:34:04 - 01:24:39:15
Steven Marshall
Recall any specific conversation with the kids about the time. I mean, by this stage both of my kids had left school.
01:24:39:20 - 01:24:40:06
Daniel Franco
Yes, it was a bit.
01:24:40:06 - 01:24:59:01
Steven Marshall
So as and as I said, you know, once you get to a certain point, you you realize this when when the kids are young, they wanting to spend more time with you than you've got. As they get older, you're wanting to spend more time with your kids and they've got yeah, they've got interests in their life. So it's a precious time that you're in at the moment.
01:24:59:01 - 01:25:18:09
Steven Marshall
But, you know, I think that, you know, I've got the balance right. I've got good relationships with both my children, my whole family. So, um, you know, they, of course, they appreciate, you know, going to see them every 5 minutes. But I still manage to, you know, visit my mother. Uh, I think pretty much every week of the whole time I was premier.
01:25:18:09 - 01:25:27:15
Steven Marshall
I think she would probably not be happy at all if I didn't. Um, so you've got a you got a difficult gig, Margie. I'd go down there and I just have a sleep, but she was.
01:25:27:15 - 01:25:28:18
Steven Marshall
Quite happy with that as well.
01:25:29:03 - 01:25:30:07
Steven Marshall
That made her feel better.
01:25:30:07 - 01:25:40:04
Daniel Franco
So being in the presence, you were, you're a single man the whole time. You were. You were premier. What is, what is the future of love look like for you? Something you're going to try to be.
01:25:40:14 - 01:25:42:01
Steven Marshall
You know, is this could become a dating.
01:25:43:00 - 01:25:44:04
Steven Marshall
Dating and it's.
01:25:44:15 - 01:26:02:23
Daniel Franco
I you know what's funny is that there is someone on this show. I'm not sure if you would like me to use her name, but she was on Tinder and use the podcast as a link in know ten different phones is if you want to learn more about me, have a listen to this podcast. How did.
01:26:02:23 - 01:26:03:22
Steven Marshall
You got to get.
01:26:03:27 - 01:26:04:24
Going? Well, all right.
01:26:05:19 - 01:26:12:06
Steven Marshall
Well, I'll keep that in mind. I'm single at the moment, so you never know what they might be a way of attracting somebody who is fabulous.
01:26:12:06 - 01:26:31:02
Daniel Franco
Yeah, well, no, no better way to get to know you. Obviously, you've got probably a little bit more information written about you than most people. So we do a bit of research with this podcast and we have someone of sort who does that research. And I remember they came back and said, So someone internationally virtual assistant, and they said, Is this the right guy?
01:26:31:06 - 01:27:02:14
Daniel Franco
Because there was just this plethora of information. And I'm like, Yeah, that's him. So there's a lot written about, Yeah. And trying to sift through all those different articles is, is hard work, especially with nine years 9 to 13 years. So look was start wrapping up you said there's no you don't really like to look back but I want to ask you this question and you kind of already answered it, but I want you to try to answer it differently if you would do it all again, you could do it all again.
01:27:02:14 - 01:27:04:18
Daniel Franco
Would you do it differently? No, no.
01:27:05:13 - 01:27:06:22
Steven Marshall
No. Look.
01:27:07:10 - 01:27:26:11
Steven Marshall
You know, you've got to be true to yourself. One of the things about, you know, the podcast and self-help is, um, there'll be people putting forward ideas about things that have worked for them. Some people will be quite opinionated. This is the only way to run an organization. I've sort of go the other way. There is not one leadership style.
01:27:27:02 - 01:27:55:10
Steven Marshall
There is not one methodology for running a company or running your life. It's all up to the individual. And so, you know, I chose to base the leadership that I showed over four years running the site based upon all of the values and the methodologies that I had experienced in the lead up to that important time. Others would be completely different, you see, in sport as well.
01:27:55:10 - 01:28:04:16
Steven Marshall
I mean, it wasn't that long ago that, you know, coaches would going, ranting and raving at players and tearing strips off of them. At half time this was seen as the model for.
01:28:04:29 - 01:28:06:24
Steven Marshall
Good leadership.
01:28:07:08 - 01:28:21:05
Steven Marshall
Within sporting codes. Then you see other people who didn't their voices once hardly spoke, spoke, you know, in a very strategic way to individual players. Some players respond very well to aggressive motivation.
01:28:21:05 - 01:28:21:22
Steven Marshall
Others.
01:28:22:03 - 01:28:46:07
Steven Marshall
Don't. And so there's no one style in anything that we do. I agree. And so I think, you know, I wouldn't I wouldn't change things. Yes, I could have changed things. Maybe there would have been different outcomes, but maybe they wouldn't have been different outcomes. Maybe. I mean, I think a worse scenario would have been changing the methodology in the last sort of 12 weeks of my premiership and then still losing the election.
01:28:46:07 - 01:28:54:07
Steven Marshall
Yeah, you know, so I, you know, ran to that line based my belief that, you know, this is the way that we we should, should operate as a government.
01:28:55:07 - 01:28:57:08
Daniel Franco
So looking beyond your political career.
01:28:57:19 - 01:28:57:29
Steven Marshall
Yep.
01:28:59:06 - 01:29:01:16
Daniel Franco
What are some personal aspirations and goals.
01:29:01:27 - 01:29:03:09
Steven Marshall
Of when it comes to your podcast?
01:29:03:09 - 01:29:06:15
Daniel Franco
Yeah, absolutely. Well bucket list tick for you.
01:29:07:06 - 01:29:11:21
Steven Marshall
Well, beyond that, it's difficult to say. I think everything else pales into insignificance.
01:29:13:04 - 01:29:42:00
Daniel Franco
Thank you. That that'll go as a headline, I think. Well, I mean, what does the future of say Steven look like outside of politics? What are you looking to do? I mean, you this entrepreneurship thing, for me, it just seems to be running through your veins business. You're a business minded person. You've got this passion and love for growing business, growing this state, growing the population manufacturing obviously still seems to run through your blood the way you talk about it.
01:29:42:04 - 01:29:45:24
Daniel Franco
What are you going to what are you going to do in your next career?
01:29:46:16 - 01:30:07:11
Steven Marshall
Well, I think, you know, I think you've named a lot of areas that I will be interested in, you know, keeping South Australia as the focus, trying to attract investment into South Australian employment. South Australia. I do love the tech sector. I think that's a great sector for jobs of the future in South Australia. So I love the arts sector.
01:30:07:11 - 01:30:10:10
Steven Marshall
So I think there'll be a combination of 56. I am.
01:30:10:24 - 01:30:11:24
Daniel Franco
So south east in.
01:30:11:24 - 01:30:19:09
Steven Marshall
January, so well you know, you know, um, you know, be looking for those opportunities by the time I get out.
01:30:19:12 - 01:30:23:01
Daniel Franco
Still spring chicken might woo South Australia be your home?
01:30:23:29 - 01:30:24:27
Steven Marshall
I think so, yeah.
01:30:25:07 - 01:30:26:19
Steven Marshall
Yeah. A lot of.
01:30:26:26 - 01:30:49:26
Steven Marshall
Politicians, when they finish their service, move interstate or overseas, they just want to complete. Not a break. Um, I just don't feel. I think this is the best place in the world. Yeah, I genuinely believe that. And that's why even today I'm still out there sort of pitching for companies to move or expand in South Australia and. Often it's more compelling when you're not the Premier because you know.
01:30:50:15 - 01:30:51:06
Daniel Franco
No one's watching.
01:30:51:11 - 01:30:52:02
Steven Marshall
Well, well.
01:30:52:15 - 01:31:10:25
Steven Marshall
When you the Premier, you sort of oblige to say great things about your state when you're not there and you're saying this is the best place for your company, this is the best place for you to innovate and to grow your opportunities, then it's I think it's more compelling. There's nothing in it for you. As a former premier of South Australia.
01:31:13:11 - 01:31:17:01
Daniel Franco
What excites you the most about the future of South Australia?
01:31:17:22 - 01:31:18:27
Steven Marshall
Keeping young people here?
01:31:19:05 - 01:31:19:16
Daniel Franco
Yeah.
01:31:20:27 - 01:31:48:10
Steven Marshall
Yeah. I mean it wasn't that long ago that to be successful for your parents or grandparents to be talking about you amongst their friends, they had to say, Oh, look, my son or grandsons move to, you know, Singapore or Hong Kong or Silicon Valley or New York or even Sydney. That's not the case. Now people can say, Look, my son or got this fantastic job, you know, working for this global company right here, you know, right in the center of the city.
01:31:48:10 - 01:31:57:10
Steven Marshall
You know, my, my, my, um, son grandson, daughter, granddaughter are working on Lot 14 building satellites.
01:31:57:13 - 01:31:57:22
Daniel Franco
Yeah.
01:31:58:00 - 01:32:01:13
Steven Marshall
You know, we're building satellites in the CBD.
01:32:01:16 - 01:32:02:16
Daniel Franco
D Amazing.
01:32:02:25 - 01:32:10:10
Steven Marshall
You know, And it's there's so many opportunities that I think that it's just hugely exciting and not just to go and work for somebody.
01:32:10:16 - 01:32:11:29
Steven Marshall
But to start a business. Yeah.
01:32:12:04 - 01:32:34:06
Steven Marshall
And attract that capital. It wasn't that long ago to, to attract capital into areas like space or cyber or tech or air. You needed to move, at the very least Sydney, Singapore, but probably Silicon Valley. But I mean, we've seen companies now routinely close off funding rounds for ten, 20, 30, $50 million in Adelaide. That's pretty exciting.
01:32:34:06 - 01:32:38:03
Daniel Franco
It is. Do you.
01:32:38:24 - 01:32:40:09
Do you a little bit.
01:32:40:10 - 01:32:44:09
Daniel Franco
Does it grind your gears a little bit that your children have moved away like.
01:32:44:12 - 01:32:45:09
Steven Marshall
Oh, my daughter's here.
01:32:45:09 - 01:32:47:07
Daniel Franco
Oh, she's here, You know, she moved away for a little bit.
01:32:47:07 - 01:32:59:12
Steven Marshall
She she did some study overseas. They both have they get here overseas and she did a placement overseas. My son moved interstate for for university. But I'm hopeful that he's going to be back soon.
01:32:59:22 - 01:33:00:13
Steven Marshall
But I don't think it's an.
01:33:00:13 - 01:33:05:05
Steven Marshall
Easy environment for the kids of a premier to be looking for jobs. You know, when their fathers.
01:33:05:12 - 01:33:05:15
Daniel Franco
Had.
01:33:05:15 - 01:33:07:03
Steven Marshall
Television every single night. So I think it.
01:33:07:18 - 01:33:07:22
Daniel Franco
Was.
01:33:07:22 - 01:33:18:23
Steven Marshall
Actually a really it was you know, when Charlie sort of said that he thought he would pursue something, he did. So I thought that makes a lot of logical sense. Hi bearing spec, same rodeo.
01:33:18:23 - 01:33:37:01
Daniel Franco
So let's, uh, let's jump into some quickfire questions as we round off the podcast is a little bit of fun at the end, but also just one word answers. You can elaborate a little bit, but let's just jump right through where would be great is here as soon, okay? What's what are you reading right now?
01:33:37:11 - 01:33:46:01
Steven Marshall
Goodness gracious. You said so quickly, but I can't remember the name of the book. But it's actually a political memoir. Malcolm Turnbull's political memoir. But I can't.
01:33:46:01 - 01:33:47:22
Steven Marshall
Remember what it's called. Sorry, but I.
01:33:48:01 - 01:34:07:03
Daniel Franco
Will we'll we'll put it in the posted notes. We'll look it up. Personal development of personal growth is also that's front of center of a lot of business leaders. Is there any book that you've read or anything that you've that stood out to you and about, you know, strategy, personal growth, whatever It might be. Is it something that stood out to you from a learning perspective?
01:34:07:12 - 01:34:14:01
Steven Marshall
It was a book with an orange cover, which was called The Simple Art of Not Giving a Fuck.
01:34:14:01 - 01:34:14:18
Yeah, five.
01:34:15:07 - 01:34:19:10
Steven Marshall
Of which my daughter Georgie bought for me at Christmas one year.
01:34:19:27 - 01:34:20:06
Steven Marshall
And did.
01:34:20:07 - 01:34:21:00
Daniel Franco
Terrific book.
01:34:21:00 - 01:34:25:15
Steven Marshall
Not only did she give it to me as a Christmas present, she underlined sections.
01:34:26:16 - 01:34:32:22
Daniel Franco
And said, You need to learn this. It was a sort of a velvet glove slap that she was showing it to the fire.
01:34:33:21 - 01:34:35:03
Steven Marshall
She's got a very good sense of humor.
01:34:37:21 - 01:34:41:24
Daniel Franco
Um, what's one lesson that's taking you the longest to learn?
01:34:43:05 - 01:35:12:29
Steven Marshall
Uh oh. What's one lesson? That's, um. You keep saying rapid fire. These are the most difficult to answer of the lot. Uh, um, one of the lessons that I'm still learning, I think I substitute hard work a lot. Um, maybe. Maybe I need to learn to work less than 80 hours a week. I don't know whether I will do that.
01:35:13:28 - 01:35:14:14
Steven Marshall
Um, but you.
01:35:14:14 - 01:35:20:13
Daniel Franco
Hear the comments. Work smarter, not harder. Yeah. Is there a way in which you can do that?
01:35:21:22 - 01:35:30:18
Steven Marshall
And I just think I'm wired differently. I just genuinely, you know, I'm just. I'm just used to getting up very early in the morning and looking for every opportunity.
01:35:31:08 - 01:35:40:27
Daniel Franco
You are nonstop, even in speaking to leading up to this podcast, it's your your calendar. What does it look like? It must.
01:35:40:27 - 01:35:46:15
Steven Marshall
Be crazy. And people laugh when I say I'm still working an 85 hour week. I think I'm joking.
01:35:48:06 - 01:35:48:19
Steven Marshall
Why?
01:35:49:12 - 01:36:02:17
Steven Marshall
I don't know the answer to that question. I just am, um, always have always worked. Um, I remember Dad saying to me one Saturday morning I was watching cartoons and he's saying, What are you doing? And I said.
01:36:02:17 - 01:36:10:04
Steven Marshall
I'm watching cartoons. And he said, What are you coming at the TV? Something? I think it's Saturday morning. God, you know, But that's the sort of, as.
01:36:10:04 - 01:36:26:27
Steven Marshall
I said, we're all products of our parents. And that's I mean, I just I just look at that opportunity every single day and say, well, how can I how can I, you know, achieve something? You know, I'm not looking to I'm not looking to put my feet up and and think the painting a lot of writing the the fantasy novel just yet.
01:36:26:28 - 01:36:35:28
Daniel Franco
Yeah. How do we make it then in this world. I love that attitude. If you can have coffee with one current or historical figure, who would it be?
01:36:36:24 - 01:36:38:14
Steven Marshall
Oh. Oh, goodness gracious.
01:36:38:14 - 01:36:40:20
Steven Marshall
I'm just having a good coffee here with you.
01:36:40:20 - 01:36:40:29
Daniel Franco
Yeah.
01:36:41:08 - 01:36:42:27
Steven Marshall
So that's pretty exciting.
01:36:42:27 - 01:36:53:20
Daniel Franco
I go, Is current and historical right now, Who would it be? Is there anyone that you've looked up to? Is there one you aspire to? I mean, could be sporting, could be political, could businessperson?
01:36:56:22 - 01:37:00:24
Steven Marshall
Goodness gracious. I think I might choose somebody like an artist.
01:37:00:24 - 01:37:01:01
Daniel Franco
Okay.
01:37:01:09 - 01:37:15:14
Steven Marshall
You know, like a you know, maybe a performing artist or something like just to really get inside their head of how they perform. The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra last night, just a fascinating performance. So, yeah, I think I'd probably be an artist, but I don't know which one.
01:37:17:06 - 01:37:19:23
Daniel Franco
What some of the best advice that you've ever received.
01:37:20:02 - 01:37:23:04
Steven Marshall
Work hard, set your goals all comes from that.
01:37:23:09 - 01:37:27:01
Daniel Franco
Oh man. Yeah. What habit holds you back the most?
01:37:27:17 - 01:37:38:24
Steven Marshall
Um, as I said, you know, I don't know. That holds me back, but my abiding that I've got that I just don't think I can break is just, uh.
01:37:39:18 - 01:37:46:13
Daniel Franco
You know, the ADL work, which there's a book you should read, but Tim Ferriss called The four four Hour Workweek.
01:37:46:24 - 01:37:48:14
Steven Marshall
Yeah, but what do you do for the rest of the time?
01:37:49:03 - 01:37:49:28
Daniel Franco
Live your life?
01:37:50:14 - 01:37:51:18
Steven Marshall
I enjoy working.
01:37:51:25 - 01:37:52:03
Daniel Franco
Experience.
01:37:52:05 - 01:37:52:29
Steven Marshall
I enjoy working.
01:37:52:29 - 01:38:02:14
Daniel Franco
That's the thing. Right It is. I'm kind of of the same mode. I actually do enjoy the hustle of it all. What's your biggest pet peeve?
01:38:05:11 - 01:38:13:23
Steven Marshall
Uh, I'm not big on inefficiency or lack of courtesy. Yeah, So I think those things are annoying.
01:38:13:26 - 01:38:28:06
Daniel Franco
Yeah, I get very annoying. Not just a bit annoying. Very. You know, not letting people know is. Yeah, I agree. If could pay someone to do one of your chores, which chore would it be?
01:38:28:21 - 01:38:31:00
Steven Marshall
Get rid of the leaves around the house at the moment.
01:38:31:00 - 01:38:31:09
Steven Marshall
You know.
01:38:31:09 - 01:38:32:19
Daniel Franco
That's a no such a no would.
01:38:32:19 - 01:38:34:06
Steven Marshall
Problem. It is.
01:38:34:26 - 01:38:35:04
No.
01:38:37:06 - 01:38:38:29
Daniel Franco
What would you absolutely hate?
01:38:39:27 - 01:38:44:20
Steven Marshall
Uh oh. Well, I don't really.
01:38:44:20 - 01:38:54:28
Steven Marshall
Know where that I hate. Um, I hate seeing the word got in my quotes in the paper because don't think I use the word, but every time I look at it, I.
01:38:54:28 - 01:38:56:14
Steven Marshall
Apparently use it all the time.
01:38:56:22 - 01:38:57:12
Daniel Franco
Like got.
01:38:57:13 - 01:39:10:23
Steven Marshall
I've got, I've got 32 things involved than I have, you know, my teachers wouldn't have been too happy with me using that so much. But apparently I do. And apparently I pronounce the word another incorrectly.
01:39:11:04 - 01:39:11:22
Daniel Franco
Another.
01:39:11:25 - 01:39:13:07
Steven Marshall
Yeah. And it's.
01:39:13:07 - 01:39:17:03
Daniel Franco
Yeah, say it again. Another and oh, that's a bit weird.
01:39:17:12 - 01:39:34:06
Steven Marshall
Yeah. Well I can't hear myself saying I had to think about it then, but I used to get journalists saying that's not even a word that he's making. You just said another, another. But that's, it's another. Yeah, but, but, but for that's true. But I don't hear saying to if I said you did it again and listen to it, you did it again.
01:39:34:06 - 01:39:43:11
Daniel Franco
Let's listen back to the podcast and then you, you, what's the first thing you would do if you became invisible?
01:39:44:06 - 01:39:47:15
Steven Marshall
Uh oh, gosh, I don't know. I don't.
01:39:47:15 - 01:39:49:26
Steven Marshall
Know that. No.
01:39:49:29 - 01:39:51:14
Daniel Franco
I sit in a Labor Party meeting or.
01:39:51:15 - 01:39:51:24
Steven Marshall
Oh, no.
01:39:53:09 - 01:39:54:06
Steven Marshall
No interest in that one.
01:39:54:06 - 01:39:56:20
Daniel Franco
So it's a bit of a creepy question.
01:39:56:25 - 01:39:58:24
Yeah, but.
01:39:58:24 - 01:40:04:06
Daniel Franco
I also want to know that you dodged that bullet. Are they? What's one useless talent that you have?
01:40:04:27 - 01:40:07:23
Steven Marshall
Mm. And Cockatoo whistling. I think the, uh.
01:40:07:23 - 01:40:08:23
Steven Marshall
With people out and.
01:40:08:23 - 01:40:11:06
Steven Marshall
Really big at whistling anymore. Don't ask me to do.
01:40:11:11 - 01:40:12:04
Daniel Franco
The wolf whistles.
01:40:12:06 - 01:40:14:12
Steven Marshall
Nine, nine assists is quite good.
01:40:14:14 - 01:40:17:27
Daniel Franco
What you whistle music or you whistle to get people's attention?
01:40:18:00 - 01:40:20:07
Steven Marshall
No, just music. Yes, it's fine.
01:40:20:07 - 01:40:26:06
Daniel Franco
But a nice tune. Yeah. You can't do it. You won't be able to do ice mining, but so do you whistle at home a lot?
01:40:26:28 - 01:40:35:13
Steven Marshall
When I'm walking often, you know, just for myself. It's such a useless sort of, uh, talent. Not particularly good at it, but I just. I just enjoy it.
01:40:35:14 - 01:40:42:06
Daniel Franco
Yeah, it's a it's. I like that. But not only so I think I'm good at.
01:40:42:06 - 01:40:42:16
Steven Marshall
It, So.
01:40:43:03 - 01:40:52:19
Daniel Franco
My kids will say that. How do you get the chewing gum? Anyway, Last question now, I've read everywhere that your kids think you're, you're, you're dead. Jokes are the worst.
01:40:52:24 - 01:40:53:20
Steven Marshall
I know you told.
01:40:53:20 - 01:40:56:15
Steven Marshall
Me that you might ask me this, and I thought you might. Might, uh.
01:40:57:04 - 01:40:59:03
Steven Marshall
Look one up. Yeah.
01:40:59:03 - 01:41:00:20
Daniel Franco
You don't have a dad joke. Really?
01:41:00:20 - 01:41:00:25
Steven Marshall
Oh.
01:41:01:06 - 01:41:02:07
Steven Marshall
Can I come back to you on that one?
01:41:02:24 - 01:41:06:17
How? You know, lyrically. But.
01:41:07:02 - 01:41:15:18
Daniel Franco
But it doesn't matter. I just read everywhere that your kids think your dad jokes the worst. And I love that joke, so.
01:41:15:23 - 01:41:22:23
Steven Marshall
But, you know thing about it is they just come out. You don't, you know, hear them from somebody else. I think they just find my sense of humor.
01:41:23:18 - 01:41:25:00
Daniel Franco
Yeah, but quite bland.
01:41:25:12 - 01:41:27:25
Steven Marshall
Georgie often says, like, three times a day. Dad.
01:41:28:15 - 01:41:33:06
Steven Marshall
You hear yourself because of Got it. That it's not like whistling.
01:41:33:12 - 01:41:57:07
Daniel Franco
That's beautiful. Thank you so for your time today, Stephen, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on the show. I speak on behalf of of people in South Australia. You know, thank you for all that you did while you Premier and Liberal later and and everything that you have done for the state and um you know, slightly edging us into the direction in which we can grow as a state.
01:41:57:07 - 01:42:19:00
Daniel Franco
And it is a really exciting time for South Australia to be growing and attracting world class talent and world class businesses. And it's a testament to the work that you and the team did in your time as, uh, as the party of choice. So thank you again. Thank you for everything. Thank you for your time. We're really looking forward to seeing what the future holds for you.
01:42:19:14 - 01:42:19:28
Steven Marshall
It's a pleasure.
01:42:20:14 - 01:42:37:16
Daniel Franco
Thanks, everyone. Take care. We'll catch you next time. Thanks for listening to the podcast. Or you can check out the show notes if there was anything of interest to you and find out more about us at Synergy IQ dot com. So do you. I am going to ask though if you did like the podcast, you would absolutely mean the world to me.
01:42:37:16 - 01:42:46:13
Daniel Franco
If you can subscribe, write and review, and if you didn't like it, that's alright too. There's no need to do anything. Thank you guys. All the best.