Responding to ‘When fear finds a face’: Why our politicians are using immigrants as a weapon

Love this article; best article I have read on this topic. It is so important that we address the rise of these issues. – Jan Chorley

Excellent article. It is sad that migrants are blamed for anything that goes wrong. Some politicians see this as an opportunity to get votes by adding fuel to the fire.

Another interesting thing is that you will often find that migrants who arrived first will attack migrants who arrived a few years after them. Humans are strange. – Arthur Porter

I’m a seventh-generation Australian-born citizen. Born in Adelaide in 1948, I grew up with a cohort of kids split roughly 33 per cent Australian or English, 33 per cent Italian and 33 per cent from the Greek islands.

During the 1950s, I quickly learned that the Italian and Greek kids in my class of 50 plus were different and “special”.

I had never tasted or smelled garlic before; I thought that all spaghetti came from a tin, and bread and salami sandwiches were something that was for adults only.

In the early days, their language skills were not quite up to scratch – but it did not matter; they were all very adaptive, and they had other and better social skills than we did (Paulo quietly taught me how to count from one to 10).

After school, on my way home, I would accompany my new friend Paulo to his house, and his mother would shower us with the most delicious foods.

Paulo’s mother and father were just the most loving people, and I was constantly being embraced by Paulo’s mother, telling me that I was a skinny little kid who needed to be fattened up a bit.

At home, my sisters and I were used to quite plain foods in comparison to Paulo’s lavish spreads.

As we grew older together (still in primary school), I became aware of some of the names that other people would call these people.

I defended these people then – I think I dreamt up the word “moron” right back in the late 1950s – but today I would probably call them “bogans”.

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Anyway, these migrants have made Australia a much better place to live.

We need to embrace them today. – Dave Ward

Serafina Maiorano’s piece opens with a moving memory. Her father, cleaning a fountain in his own front garden, absorbing an ugly word from a stranger on a bicycle. Decades later, her daughter, same driveway, same word. No reader of good faith dismisses that hurt, and her closing call for small acts of everyday decency is the part of the article I agree with most.

But the rest of it misdiagnoses Australia, and in doing so, it closes down the very conversation she says we should be having.

Start with what Australia actually is. We are one of the most successful multicultural societies on Earth, and the reason has very little to do with restraining our vocabulary. It is that Australian identity is a contract that anyone can sign. That is something to defend with confidence, not apologise for with caveats. Pretending we live in a country soaked in latent bigotry insults the very neighbours, baristas and tradies whose ordinary kindness Maiorano herself ends the piece celebrating.

She cites a 22 per cent primary vote for a minor party as evidence that the country is darkening. I read the same number differently. Millions of Australians have legitimate concerns about housing costs, infrastructure lag, wage pressure in lower-skill sectors, and the sheer pace at which their suburbs are changing, and the major parties have spent a decade refusing to name those concerns out loud. When mainstream politics calls you a bigot for noticing the rent, you eventually vote for whoever will at least let you finish the sentence. – Luke Lombe

Responding to State Budget 2026: The key measures

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No news on the Truro Bypass or the freight route in the budget! I believe the government signed up to 80/20 funding with the federal government. It’s a little hollow to hold out for 50/50 funding if that’s the case. – Dave Burgess

Responding to Budget Exclusive: New money for Treaty amid public servant freeze

My understanding was that at the election, Labor said there would be no Treaty. Now $8.5 million on something which was voted against with the national Voice! Absolute waste of money. – John Lewis

Who gave you permission to waste more millions on a treaty? SA was clear with their answer. No! – Peter Burns

Responding to Funding hopes dashed for Tarrkarri but new arts media hub wins millions

No wonder the Government don’t have enough money in the coffers to fund the long-awaited Tarrkarri centre. They should scrap the destructive sporting facility agenda and focus more on our state’s indigenous heritage instead, which also has international tourist appeal.

Poor marks for relying on private funding!  Take some initiative that is guaranteed to result in an outcome instead of bumping it from budget to budget and resulting in nothing but broken promises. Shame, shame, shame! – Amanda Allport-Haller

Responding to Kouts ‘staring down barrel’ of fifty billion-dollar debt

Terrific article. Who really knows if $60 billion is an immense amount or is well within the capability of the state? – Henry Ringwood

The more important fact is how much interest the state government pays on the State Bank debt. It is very hard to get an estimate. Possibly between $7 and $15 billion. My understanding was that the final payment occurred within the last three years. – Peter Hewett

What’s a few billion to the pioneers of the State Bank disaster when they can govern in secrecy, change laws for dissenters, ignore departmental advice, bulldoze park lands, destroy rivers and catchments and preside over the nation’s largest marine catastrophe with “it will go away”?

Car racing, golf, swimming, beach volleyball and ecological destruction must be really worth it, as the environmental costs will make the State Bank disaster look like a pimple on a festering boil. – Richard Webb

I remember the Bannon years well. Especially during the period from mid 1990 to late 1993, when I was employed by State Bank as a financial accountant responsible for accounting for various “off-balance sheet” entities, fringe benefits tax and assisted with annual and semi-annual accounting work.

They were very difficult times for the state once the extent of the bank’s losses was eventually revealed.

I’m not that comfortable with the level of state debt at all. However, the 1990 problems were largely a result of poor lending policies of the bank and the provision of credit to high-risk businesses via beneficial finance. I suspect there was a lack of transparency between Bannon and Marcus-Clark that didn’t help Bannon very much.

I see this level of spending being used to develop vital infrastructure in some areas, which will provide a lasting legacy to SA.

I see it as a catch-up on projects that were never developed in the four terms prior to Marshall being elected. I always thought that the 16 years leading up to that were wasted years. At least something is happening now, and to some degree, it is a long-awaited improvement. – Tony Simmons

Responding to SA Greens call for rent freeze ahead of state budget

The Green party appears as though it seems to think that we live in a bubble where we give everything away for free and expect the wealthy to pay more tax. Nowhere in their policies is there anything remotely like improving productivity, reducing costs or investing in anything that creates revenue. These are the things that are needed to allow the “generosity” that they wish to bestow upon the community. It would seem reasonable to expect that the government will only be exposed to this wishlist if they need a vote to get through the upper house. One Nation (and Fair Go) have a great responsibility to ensure that we are not held to economic ransom. It will be a good test for their federal aspirations. – Eric Granger

Rent freeze is a great idea – if the government buys out the mortgages on the properties! If the Greens could think, are the banks, utility companies, councils etc willing to forgo their increases? I doubt it! – Ted Jaeger

Responding to Revealed: Mystery public servant taking govt to court over park lands

Thank goodness someone is doing something that brings more attention to what is happening to our park lands. I have attended rallies, donated money, and written to politicians. The death-by-a-thousand-cuts continues.

Thank you, Edwin Kemp Attrill, and all power to you.

And thank you, InDaily, for covering this story. – Alison Rimmington

Responding to One Nation MP fishes for snapper amid strict ban

There’s a reason for the restrictions in the Gulf – to give everything a chance to recover after the algal blooms and even possibly a second algal bloom.

Let alone constantly catching undersized fish and releasing them. Very stressful for the fish.

Instead of grandstanding, how about learning about your electorate and your party’s policies? – Ingrid Stockwell

Do you people understand she didn’t break any laws; she went fishing, which she is completely entitled to do! She didn’t take any snapper – caught, yes and released. When you chuck your cockle over the side of your dinghy, there are no signs on the sea floor to tell the fish which fish it is lawful to take the bait. I think the Greens are taking the bait. Oh, such outrage! – Charlie Burdett

Nope, the ban is there for a reason. Lifting it too soon will only make the time already passed a total waste of time and set the fish stocks back on the threatened list. The ones she was catching looked too small to me, and they are a slow-growing fish, but then what do I know? – Steve Coppin

Responding to Budget deficit could sink historic pool’s opening hours

I used daily swimming to get back my arm movement after a nasty accident. Best therapy in the world and much kinder than what the medicos offered. We are a nation of swimmers in a hot country and need all the pools we can get. – Jane Brown

Responding to Extended CBD road closures flagged for MotoGP

Remember the pre-election musings in November 2021 of a now government minister decrying the then state government’s “disgraceful land grab of our iconic park lands”?  Less than four years later, this state government legislated to convert into “fee simple” and put into omnipotent ministerial hands a massive area of the Adelaide Park Lands. Its Motor Sport board now seeks to grab yet more park lands, including for extensive car parking.

The “iconic” Adelaide Park Lands is labouring under the heavy hand of a state government intent on ever-expanding its takeover, chop-chop-chopping trees and ecology, laying yet more heat sink bitumen, demolishing a children’s playground, diminishing the environs of verdant and ecological parklands, and emasculating the custodianship of the City of Adelaide.

Perhaps it’s time to read the lie of the land, smell the fumes, hear the noise of demolition, and embrace the “altar of eventfulness”. Perhaps this is not ecological or intergenerational vandalism or foolishness, but foresight for “free land” to become car park land, motor park land, and exhausted parklands.

In November 2021, who would have thought that this is where a state government would have “its governmental head” in June 2026? – Elbert Brooks

Responding to ‘Once in a decade’ wild weather hits SA

This is not a “once in a decade” flood/wild weather! We had exactly the same twice last year (2025), in June and again in July, with the beaches being washed away, flooding everywhere and lots of wild weather and damage. It also happens quite regularly, especially down along the south coast beaches (Christies, Port Noarlunga, Moana, Aldinga, etc.), but everyone is used to it, and they get on with things. We’re a hardy bunch down here!

They also ‘forgot’ to mention that the bridge over the Onkaparinga River at Port Noarlunga was underwater last night (again!), which meant that there was only one way to get to or from the southern suburbs (along South Road). To make matters worse, there was also another accident on South Road, near the end of the expressway, causing huge delays! – Pam French