Council plays Mythbusters

If you’re a ratepayer in the City of Adelaide, then brace your letterboxes because it is by-election campaign season, and the mailers have begun.

Only three have trickled into InSider’s physical letterbox so far, but it’s early days. Just this week, InSider even discovered a press release from one candidate snuggled between CityMag’s on our newsstand!

But the letter that’s been the talk of the week is not by-election propaganda from council hopefuls. It’s a whopping six-page letter issued by a recurring character of InSider, councillor Henry Davis.

Published online on May 19 and hand-delivered through the city not long after, the seven-minute read claimed, “Adelaide faces a financial crisis”, a budget shortfall of $97.1 million and a need for a 27.8 per cent rate rise.

This is untrue, according to an independent report commissioned by the council.

Local government financial management firm LGiQ found the council does not face a financial crisis, does not require a 27.8 per cent rate rise and that Davis’ letter contains figures that are unsubstantiated.

InSider understands this is the first time a review of this kind – to debunk information distributed by an elected member – has been commissioned by the City of Adelaide.

So what did the unprecedented report find? Well, ratepayers can rest easy that there won’t be a 27.8 per cent rate rise, it’s actually an increase of 5.6 per cent (see, it could be worse!)

“Claims of a required 27.8 per cent increase are not substantiated by current budgets or financial policy, which remain focused on maintaining intergenerational equity,” the report read.

Davis’ letter also claimed the council needed to spend $4 million to “plug the operating deficit”.

The report found the budget achieves a surplus of $8.5 million, not an operating deficit.

Davis’ letter claimed the budget only achieves a surplus because “we are underfunding our asset renewals by $8.6 million”.

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The report said it is unclear how the $8.6 million figure in the letter was determined.

Deputy Lord Mayor Phillip Martin said the information in the letter is “quite damaging”.

“To suggest that a business and enterprise of any kind, whether it’s a public company, a private company or a government enterprise, is in a financial crisis is in my view a fairly damaging assertion; it tends to destroy public confidence,” Martin said.

Now, InSider can’t help but wonder if it’s bold of the council to assume ratepayers actually read Davis’ letter before it was chucked in the bin (hopefully the recycling!) or used to line cat litter boxes throughout the CBD.

But to justify us spending our Friday morning going down a rabbit hole about what rules there are for elected members to be factually accurate, let’s pretend they did.

For those ratepayers who aren’t InSider loyalists (which we’re sure is a small group), the council voted for the Lord Mayor to update the foreword of the 2025-26 Business Plan and Budget to set the record straight.

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Davis said the report “backs up everything I’ve said”.

“I want to reiterate that I stand by every word in my letter to ratepayers,” he said on Tuesday.

“The report supports exactly what I said in my letter and this proposal says that there will be a statement issued by the council that would correct any misinformation, but not one of you could tell me what that was and I asked multiple times exactly what it was I said in my letter that was incorrect.”

One area the report did agree with Davis’ letter is that the council has factored in unsecured external funding for the Torrens Bridge and the Weir, which InDaily has previously reported are assets that need an update.

Maintenance and repair of the bridge and the weir is a council responsibility, with no funding support being allocated to it in the forward estimates of the state government budget.

The report states “should Council not secure the required external funding, there would be a funding gap of $41.6 million” in the delivery of its Long Term Financial Plan.

Councillor Mary Couros opposed the whole process of Tuesday’s debate on the letter that prompted the independent review, even walking out of this section of the City Finance Committee meeting. She said that if some councillors were concerned about misinformation, they should go through proper channels like the Ombudsman.

InSider wondered the same thing: are there rules that ensure elected members do not distribute misinformation?

The answer: not really.

There’s no requirement under the Local Government Act or in council policies that specify that material distributed by a councillor has to be true or that outlines any consequences for sharing information that isn’t factual.

The act does outline behavioural obligations which include “acting honestly, with care and diligence, avoiding misuse of position or information, complying with council policies and maintaining confidentiality where required”.

So, maybe?

Other legislation, like the Local Government Election Act, does specify that election material – like the kind starting to fill InSider’s letterbox – cannot include inaccurate or misleading material.

I guess InSider will have to keep collecting our council election mailers and putting on the Mythbusters hat ourselves in the next couple of months.

2+2=5

Speaking of disagreeing on budget sums… has the South Australian Museum had its funding cut? It depends on who you ask.

At the Estimates Committee on Monday, June 23, Arts Minister Andrea Michaels told shadow Arts Minister Jack Batty that the South Australian Museum has an annual operating grant of $13.57 million for 2024-5 compared to $11.454 million for next year.

Batty argued that this means the SA Museum has had its budget slashed by nearly $2 million.

“Last year, Labor tried to axe 27 research roles and shut down iconic galleries. This year, they are cutting more than $2 million in funding. It’s a disgraceful way to treat our treasured museum,” Batty later said in a statement.

However, Michaels told the committee that, rather than having its funding cut, the SA Museum’s base-level funding year is increasing by $1 million compared to 2024-25.

“There were additional items allocated in 2024-25, for example, $1.5 million that was allocated to assist the Museum in their operations this year off the back of the Premier’s review,” she said.

So, has the SA Museum had its funding cut or not? We’ll let InSider readers decide.

Highway to hearing loss?

InSider has never attended a sporting event that wasn’t improved by ‘Thunderstruck’ pumping out of the venue’s PA system, so it was little surprise that the Australian rock legends were tapped this week to headline November’s Adelaide Grand Final post-race concert.

Let’s just hope this car race doesn’t end in disaster: Acca Dacca fans will still remember how the band’s future was briefly up in the air after longtime singer Brian Johnson stepped back following hearing loss in 2016 — and initially blamed his love of motor racing. A famous rev-head, Johnson was reportedly taking a race car for a spin, sans earplugs, when he felt his eardrum burst under his helmet.

Johnson eventually made it back to the stage with the help of cutting-edge hearing aid technology, but good luck and god speed to the supercar driver inevitably tasked with taking the rocker for a hot lap come November.

It’s also a cautionary tale for the rest of us to plug up before hitting the CBD in November – whether we plan to hit the racetrack or not.

Stuff we missed…

If, like InSider, your inbox is stuffed with messages easily glossed over, you can forgive us for missing the breaking news that yesterday was National Barcode Day. Apologies.

But the good people at GS1 Australia (they sell barcodes) offered up some really interesting facts and figures around the ubiquitous stripes.

According to GS1, the very first barcode ever scanned was in 1974 on a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit Gum in Troy, Ohio, before they hit Australia in 1979.

But what’s more, a report from GS1 Australia – CIE Economic Impact Report – found that barcodes contribute $27 billion annually to our nation’s GDP, a figure the company reckons could rise to nearly $50 billion if more industries used them to track goods.

“Barcodes help businesses cut duplication, reduce errors, speed up processes, and coordinate supply chains more efficiently,” the report states.

“This means faster decisions, less waste, lower costs, and a big productivity boost for 22,000 Australian businesses that use GS1 Standards, from retail to healthcare to logistics.”

The folks at the barcode company say that consumers benefit as well.

“GS1 standards already reduce prices by up to 0.6 per cent, and with broader use, this could rise to 0.9 per cent, offering a welcome buffer against inflation,” they spruik.

“They also support real wage growth, adding up to $1194 per person annually.”

Insider looked hard to see if they went as far as dissing their cousin, the QR code, but it seems the scanning industry plays nice.