SA Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas, WA Opposition Leader Mia Davies and Tasmanian Opposition Leader Rebecca White (Images: AAP)

It’s not an easy time for state opposition leaders. The pandemic has turned once anonymous premiers into rockstars, giving them significant power and influence in shaping one of Australia’s greatest policy challenges.

Riding a crest of parochialism, premiers such as Western Australia’s Mark McGowan have seen their popularity soar to absurd heights. It’s turned opposition leaders into relatively anonymous figures, struggling for cut-through. 

Yesterday we looked at how the Victorian Liberals — who have reinstated Matthew Guy as leader — could learn from NSW Labor about how to handle in being in opposition during a COVID outbreak. Today we have a rundown of other opposition leaders you might have forgotten.

Peter Malinauskas: next to the polls

South Australia is the next state to head to the polls — an election is due in March. For Labor leader Peter Malinauskas, the big wins for incumbent premiers in Queensland, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory could be ominous.

But latest polling shows Premier Steven Marshall’s Liberal government leading only narrowly — 51-49 on a two-party preferred basis. Malinauskas, a former union official with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Services Association-turned Labor “faceless man” has made a point of adopting a bipartisan approach to how the government handles the pandemic.

That’s meant Malinauskas has had to pick battles carefully. With voters ranking health as a priority, he’s spent a lot of time attacking the government’s decision to build a $667 million basketball stadium, pledging to redirect the funds to hospitals. 

In line with his Labor right-Shoppies background, Malinauskas has also slammed “culture warriors” who were dragging the party away from its blue-collar roots, in response to a divisive but widely read essay by former British PM Tony Blair.

David Crisafulli: hope over fear

Crisafulli became Queensland’s opposition leader after the LNP’s defeat last October. That means he’s got plenty of time to work out a way to dislodge Premier Annastacia Palaszcuk. Crisafulli, a former journalist and ministerial adviser with the Howard government, has focused on the state’s sluggish vaccine rollout, the tough border restrictions which don’t seem to apply to NRL players, and the premier’s lack of any hopeful messages. Still, it’s sometimes been unclear exactly where he stands on the hard border.

Crisafulli has promised to do things differently as leader, pointing to toxic internal tensions which rocked the party through its last term in opposition. With a poor showing in a recent byelection, his work is cut out for him. 

Mia Davies: the nonexistent

When WA emperor McGowan stormed to the mother of all landslide election wins in March, it left the Nationals with more seats than the Liberals. That put Nats leader Mia Davies in charge of the very tiny opposition.

“No, it’s not something we anticipated, but yes, we are a small and practical party,” Davies said after the election. 

Despite McGowan’s popularity and WA’s lack of COVID, there are real problems with the health system. But it’s hard to put pressure from the opposition benches when your numbers are so puny. 

Elsewhere, Davies got some national attention for being one of the first Nats to criticise Barnaby Joyce’s return as deputy prime minister. 

Rebecca White: third time lucky?

White resigned as Tasmanian opposition leader in May after leading Labor to two election defeats. Two months later she was back in charge because the party had elected David O’Byrne as her replacement and in July allegations surfaced that O’Byrne had sexually harassed a junior union staffer more than a decade ago. Eventually he resigned, and White returned. 

White has so far unsuccessfully urged O’Byrne to quit Parliament. Even before the scandal broke, the party had been racked by infighting. Her brief media appearances so far have been to vow that the party will do better. That could take some work.

Elizabeth Lee and Lia Finocchiaro: who?

In the interests of fairness, it’s worth introducing the ACT and NT opposition leaders. The Canberra Liberals are led by Lee since the election last year. She was born in South Korea and is the first Asian-Australian to lead a major political party. She has taken a generally supportive approach during the ACT’s lockdown — in contrast with federal Senator Zed Seselja, who has urged the government to reopen construction early on. 

Finocchiaro led the Country Liberals to an election loss in the Northern Territory last year, but kept her job in part because the opposition gained ground. In the COVID-free territory, Finocchiaro has promised a tough approach on youth crime as a key point of distinction with Labor. Most recently she stormed out of question time after her censure motion against the chief minister was defeated.

“You are dictators by another name,” she said.