Letters to the Editor zero in on homelessness and Writers’ Week
This week, InDaily readers question support for LIV golf, homelessness in SA and add more fire to the Writers’ Week saga.
Responding to Premier’s letter to SA Muslim community over Writers’ Week saga
Anyone who has ever run an organisation in receipt of government funds knows that when a minister/premier expresses an “opinion”, there is an expectation that opinion will become the organisation’s opinion as well. Whether you agree with the decision or not, it seems to me that the Adelaide Writers’ Week board really had no choice once the premier expressed his strong view. – Paul Creedon
Responding to Why SA’s ‘slow-growth’ population can be a strength
This valuable article is somewhat optimistic. Times change, and so must we. Tom Playford brought thousands of immigrants to Elizabeth by firstly building cheap, good houses and, at the same time, bringing industry to Elizabeth, attracted by the low wage bill made possible due to the cheap and abundant housing. But now Elizabeth is a centre of unemployment and discontented residents.
Times will continue to change, with the obvious one being the climate. Climate change means every year will become more turbulent; witness the recent drenching of Sydney, the flood on the Great Ocean Road and the bushfires in NSW, Vic and SA’s Fleurieu Peninsula.
The economy connected to farming, as well as other industries, will decrease due to climate change. It will be well to decrease South Australia’s population in an orderly manner now rather than have it forced upon us in a few years’ time. A forward-thinking government would plan now to decrease the population, not increase it. – Michael Dwyer
Responding to Read the room: Guerilla Writers’ Week is happening
An elitist concept in this state. Only writers with messages or something to say, or a barrow to push, or who write stuff people don’t read but put in their bookshelf to look clever, are invited.
The popular writers, the genre writers, the writers who sell the most, are never allowed to join or have their voices heard.
Since Writers SA left their old premises and took a room at the library, they are the same.
There are many genre writers in South Australia and Australia in general who are putting out world-class work, but the writing groups, writers’ centres and writing festivals pretend they don’t exist. Most readers read for entertainment and escapism, not to be preached to or made to feel inadequate, but you wouldn’t know it from Writers’ Week.
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Did you know that a South Australian writer this year had his hundredth traditionally published short story released? 100! Bet you didn’t because no one cares because he writes genre fiction.
Writers Week, Guerilla Writers Week – all elitist, filled with people who think they are self-important because they proselytise in their works… and very few people outside their literary circles bother to read.
New veneer, same elitist rubbish. – Steven Streeter
I was greatly disappointed to hear that politics had entered Writers’ Week to the detriment of losing the event altogether, due to a few self-centred individuals. I believe our personal opinions have no place in open public events.
I also wonder why they went out of their way to invite such a controversial author, or was the thinking around it all about being trendy and attracting people’s interest? It seems to have backfired.
I am also curious, did they invite authors who are pro-Israel or pro-Iran? How about pro-life, pro-Christianity, or pro abortion? The list goes on.
I am writing this because I feel you are looking for public opinion. I would greatly appreciate seeing the suggested events taking place so as to celebrate our authors and their works. I would also love to see younger authors involved.
All the best! I hope you are successful in getting something off the ground. – Katie S
Responding to Smithson: Govt scrambling as Premier comes off worst week in office
LIV Golf may well be a short-LIVed spectacle, not worth cutting down journalism (pardon the pun) and trees.
Sports washing is the reputational cost of taking money designed to launder an international image.
If the state government wants to argue this partnership is worth it, it should do so transparently, including a clear human-rights due diligence framework and an explanation of what standards South Australia is prepared to overlook for “financial benefits that may not LIV up to a return on financial investment”.
The harm is irreversible for all concerned.
Five hundred and eighty five trees will be removed for the North Adelaide golf course redevelopment tied to hosting LIV from 2028. No ratio of seedlings can replace the canopy, cooling, habitat, and heritage value of these trees within our lifetimes.
South Australia must pursue events and economic activity without trading away its integrity or its park lands.
Please, Premier Malinauskas, reconsider whether your deal reflects the values you claim to lead with. – Philip Hopkins
Stay informed, daily
The premier’s stance on the person dismissed from the Writers’ Week was correct.
It is the one thing that some of us think he has done right, against many things he has done wrong. Leave Ashton Hurn out of it since she is not under some other leader but is doing things in her own right and is not responsible for the policies of other leaders who expected loyalty from their shadow ministers. – Malcolm Eglinton
I think Mike Smithson has hit the nail on the head in making the observation that Premier Peter Malinauskas could face allegations of hypocrisy over his comments regarding Palestinian writer Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah, while at the same time welcoming Saudi-backed LIV golf.
On January 14, InDaily quoted these words of Mr Malinauskas: “All the words that I’ve spoken have come from a place of the desire for people to treat each other civilly, with compassion, in the interests of humanity more broadly…”
I have no doubt about the premier’s sincerity regarding that statement, but I struggle to see how it can be reconciled with him welcoming a Saudi-backed sports event while that regime’s serious human rights violations are well known. – Carol Faulkner
Responding to Writers’ Week books in warehouse limbo after festival implodes
With that one statement, Premier Malinauskas has revealed his true economic understanding.
He has no interest in the arts, the small businesses and the people that truly make Adelaide worth visiting. Watch him trot out all the faux “economic benefits” of the car race that sits like a goitre on the neck of the CBD for months on end.
Don Dunstan must be spinning in his grave!
Malinauskas’s likely legacy will be the en-shit-ification of our once beautiful city. – Nick Patrick
Responding to Adelaide rent prices hit a new record as regional pain exposes ‘concerning’ trend
It would be useful for someone to analyse and report on all the factors causing these never-ending rent rises.
We often hear about items such as a lack of rent controls and a lack of housing stock. The government and media are obsessed with supply.
Let’s start looking at demand factors such as smaller household size and the eternal blind spot – a larger SA population due to overseas migration, interstate movements and local births. The demand side of the equation cannot be ignored. – Stephen Morris
Responding to Dire new record for homelessness service as SA loses ‘collective voice’
It’s such a shame to be losing Shelter SA and the voice of Dr Alice Clark, who has been the spokesperson for homelessness services for decades. It is very disappointing to read Nick Champion’s comments about building houses. Homelessness is growing not just in South Australia but nationally, and many of those people who are homeless also have a range of disabilities, including psychosocial disabilities and intellectual disabilities.
Societies are judged by how they treat and support the most vulnerable people within the community, and it is very sad to see that a Labor government is not willing to provide a small amount of funding to maintain Shelter SA.
I am reflecting on previous Labor governments, such as the Mike Rann government, which established the Minister for Social Inclusion in 2004 when then Premier Mike Rann adopted the title. He held the portfolio until his retirement as Premier in October 2011. The initiative led to a big investment in strategies to combat homelessness, including establishing the Common Ground program and Street to Home initiative.
The current Labor government also needs to reflect on its heritage and what previous Labor governments have done. We will be the only state that does not have a shelter peak body for homelessness, and Dr Alice Clark has been a tireless advocate over decades and as a person whom I have enormous respect for. – Maurice Corcoran AM
Responding to Protestors disrupt TDU as Santos gas project loads cargo
I hope these protestors lose Centrelink for the days that they protest, or don’t get paid sick leave for the day. – Darrel Simmons
Responding to Thousands of chips wash up on popular beach
You could say “chips ashore”. – Michael Quinlan
