Adelaide driving test | Taking the gloss off | A call for peace through science
This week InSider gets behind the wheel for a few Adelaide cringes and finds the Premier in the classroom.
Council (not) safe as houses
All levels of government love a glossy policy document.
There’s nothing better than putting all your Future Focused Initiatives™ into a 30-odd page booklet, filling it with high quality photographs, contents pages and ministerial forewords, and then releasing it to the public as alleged meaningful output.
Take the state government’s “A Better Housing Future” document released in February. Of its 28 pages, four are full page photographs of happy families in houses, six are half-page spread photographs and roughly five pages are taken up by maps and diagrams. That’s not including the contents page and address page at the back.
It’s an effort that would at least impress Tony from the former ABC series, The Hollowmen – Rob Sitch’s Utopia precursor.
But it’s very rare to see the glossy add-ons in these documents called into question, which is why InSider was amused to see Adelaide City Council asked to rethink a photo used for its draft housing strategy published this week.
The title page of the “Investing in our Housing Future” document features an image symbolising the absolute opposite – a community housing property in Whitmore Square the council sold off in 2021.
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Deputy Lord Mayor Phillip Martin forced the somewhat sheepish admission from the council administration on Tuesday night.
“Can I suggest that an otherwise perfect document is somewhat blighted by the previous council’s decision to sell community housing and social housing,” Martin said.
“Another illustration might be appropriate.”
InSider looks forward to seeing what revision the council comes up with next week before the strategy goes out to consultation.
The ‘Adelaide Cringe’ is as strong as ever
When the gushing began that a national paper had labelled Adelaide as cool, it didn’t take long for the memes to start. InSider’s fav:
Premier shows perseverance pays off
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A heart-warming story popped up on socials this week with footage of Premier Peter Malinauskas dropping by an Adelaide primary school to meet a young student called Kennedy.
After 13 attempts to make it onto the school student representative council, Kennedy this year won enough votes from her peers to wear the badge.
Kennedy then followed up on a promise to her classmates to write to the Premier and Malinauskas himself then decided to show the class that Kennedy’s hard work paid off.
“Perseverance in all things can be a very virtuous quality,” he told the class.
“All I wanted to do was come down here and say thank you very much for your letter because it’s very important people take the time to write and care about what’s going on.”
"Kennedy is an example of why it’s important to persevere. ? pic.twitter.com/zJrqRxxJjb"
"— Peter Malinauskas (@PMalinauskasMP) November 8, 2023"
The woes of Adelaide drivers
The other week InDaily published a quiz on traffic rules, which has been viewed more than 122,000 times. So, quick to see a trend, InSider liked this post on Reddit from a confused Vic this morning.
"Hook Turn
byu/prayastha inAdelaide"
This exact turn at this intersection has baffled InSider for more than a decade. But a quick look at the traffic rules determines that if you do it wrong, it’s worth two demerit points. Maybe it would make more sense to award two points to anyone in SA who knows how to do it right?
Stuff you should know…
Today is World Science Day for Peace and Development, a United Nations initiative to highlight the significant role of science in society and the need to engage the wider public in debates on emerging scientific issues. Given that at the moment there is a lot of science killing a lot of people around the world – especially in the Middle East and Ukraine – it is a poignant reminder before Remembrance Day tomorrow that a public not engaged in the debate can’t influence how science is used in the work.
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