Trump blows up socials while Champion dreams of the same for Adelaide
Today, the Trump Mugshot ruled as supporters pray for his election chances … as InSider found prayer lingers around our own institutions.
Champion’s renovation of Adelaide
South Australia’s planning minister, like everyone else, wishes he had a time machine.
But while most of us might use one to witness a famous event or undo a personal regret, Nick Champion has other ideas.
While making an energetic argument to InSider about why it’s sometimes just too hard to increase the density of Adelaide’s inner and middle ring suburbs, Champion lamented: “I can’t go back in time and whisper in Colonel Light’s ear, ‘Oh, Colonel Light, why don’t you do what New York did and have a grid plan’.
“(I’d) love to do that outside the park lands, nice neat grid, what I would give for that time machine.
“But I don’t have that time machine, and I don’t get to be like Haussmann and Napoleon III who wiped out medieval Paris.”
Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, for those unfamiliar with his work, was appointed by Napoleon III (not that Napoleon) in 1853 to embark on an enormous public works program that reshaped Paris into the six-level high-density boulevard city it is today.
Tasked with fixing the city’s overcrowded labyrinth layout and lack of sewage system, Haussmann razed more than 19,000 buildings, built 34,000 new ones, planted tens of thousands of trees and created new public parks.
At the core of the new layout was a north-south axis cutting through Paris’ most crowded neighbourhoods (a North-South Corridor if you will) connecting with an east-west axis through the middle of the city.
While Hausmann’s high-density legacy is praised in some quarters, South Australia’s planning minister is less convinced.
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“Everybody talks to me about Paris,” Champion said.
“Haussmann levelled Paris, levelled medieval Paris, knocked it all down, every single bit of it and rebuilt what you saw today.
“And the other thing about Paris is which nobody ever talks about because no one ever goes to the outskirts of Paris where there’s this huge social issue with people packed into apartment blocks with very poor planning outcomes where they have riots regularly.
“So people have got to be – if you’re going to try and restrain or make some commentary about greenfield (housing development), it’s got to be done within the context of the world that we live in. We’re constrained by geography.”
While Champion may never get to do a Napolean III-style renovation of Adelaide, the InSider hopes the above Photoshop effort is the next best thing.
#TrumpMugshot
Of course the platform formerly known as Twitter blew up this morning (Adelaide time) as everyone awaited the mugshot of the century. After a few fake attempts, the final didn’t disappoint the waiting masses and the memes came fast and steady.
From this one superimposed on soccer fans
"Live footage from every American home when the mugshot dropped #TrumpMugshot"
"— ZEEZ ? (@Swaggzeez1) August 25, 2023"
To practical questions
"Should the #TrumpMugShot be his official Presidential Portrait? pic.twitter.com/GmZ3MIm7mX"
"— Jamaal Bowman Ed.D. (@JamaalBowmanNY) August 25, 2023"
To a bit of history
"All the mugshots release so far, felony counts and brief description of involvement. #TrumpMugShot pic.twitter.com/mg2rrbsS0T"
"— José (@josecanyousee) August 25, 2023"
Lib MPs back in rebel councillor
Adelaide City councillor Henry Davis may not have enough allies in Town Hall to support his prayer protest – but he has a few friends on North Terrace.
Davis, a former Liberal Party member, has unsuccessfully pushed this year to keep a prayer at the start of council meeting – outvoted on Tuesday night by a 6 to 5 majority of councillors who preferred a non-denominational pledge.
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This came despite the urgings of conservative Liberal MPs Nicola Centofanti, Heidi Girolamo, Dennis Hood and Ben Hood, all of whom wrote to council on Tuesday expressing their “concerns” about changing the prayer.
“Our Westminster system of government is founded upon traditions of the Judeo-Christian faith and to disregard these historical customs is a concerning retreat from past practice,” Ben Hood wrote.
“It is crucial that the tradition of reciting prayer not be crowded out by alternative forms of acknowledgement, due to the centrality of the Christian faith in our liberal democratic systems.”
Queried by the InSider about their impetus for writing to council, Girolamo said the letters came “out of concern for a permanent change to council’s standing orders”.
“(The prayer) is a reflection of our traditions in South Australia and the people who founded our great city and state in the Judeo-Christian faith,” Girolamo said.
“These traditions must be honoured, respected and preserved and the attempted removal of this simple observance of faith is concerning.
“For a Council in self-described ‘budget repair mode’ it really has more pressing issues to focus on than this attempt at removing such an important part of its history.”
Davis on Wednesday threatened legal action over the council’s decision, arguing a two-thirds majority was needed to change the prayer. Council administration says its comfortable with its position.
Asked by InSider for an update today, Davis said he intended to file a pre-action notice “within the day”, later adding: “I’m not the type of person to be pushed around.”
The ins and outs of SA government
Two changes this week reported by InDaily made the InSider take notice.
First up Premier Peter Malinauskas, a former state secretary of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association, is preparing to welcome his successor in the union role, Sonia Romeo, to a senior position in his office.
Romeo, a former secretary and, until this week, assistant secretary of the Shoppies, will come on board as Deputy Chief of Staff in late September.
Second, reported today, Richard Price, the chief executive of Defence SA and the South Australian Space Industry Centre (SASIC), has resigned from both roles which he has held since 2017.
Defence SA is South Australia’s lead agency for defence issues, acting as a single point of contact for all stakeholders in the industry.
Price’s resignation comes at a crucial time for defence industries in South Australia, with continuing questions about exactly how many nuclear submarines will be built in Adelaide under the AUKUS defence pact and a range of other complex challenges including preparing the workforce.
In a statement provided to InDaily, Price said the time was right for someone new to lead Defence SA.
Stuff you should know…
Indonesia, especially the densely populated island of Java, is best known for its factories pumping out everything from running shoes to Barbies. But as the video below shows, a new type of factory has emerged. This is truly sales on a mass scale.
"Social selling factory in Indonesia ?"
"This is UGC industrial mass production. This is a freaking factory."
"Selling things online is changing so fast. Everything is changing so fast."
"This is unreal pic.twitter.com/8rig77MGuR"
"— Linus (●ᴗ●) (@LinusEkenstam) August 20, 2023"
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