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February 13, 2003
More Budget Cuts in SA planned
More indications of the Rann Government is in slash and burn mode. Treasury has asked the Art SA the State Government cut its budget this year by 7% on top of the 3% of last year. Libraries, art galleries, the Festival Centre, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Australian Dance Theatre, Tandanya, Jam Factory, and major festivals are all going to be targeted.
Yet another example of the Rann Government placing obstacles in the way of regional development----cutting the toes of a dynamic sector of the state's economy insead of the state government playing a faciltating role in development strategy to overcome a depressing scenario of low economic grwoth.
Lets face it. The neo-liberal pundits (eg. John Stone) see SA as not being the place where those major export projects that are the key drivers for Australia in the global economy will happen. For from it. For these economic pundits SA is the place of a strong anti-growth mindset that is fostered by the Australian Democrats and Greens who see economic growth as dirty and cause such political mayhem. Adelaide may be a pleasant place to live, but SA is in decline, is boring, provincal and inward-looking.
This slash and burn of SA's arts and cultural institutions is another indication of the stranglehold of neoliberalism on state policy makers. The key to long-term success is to make the government machine small, lean and men, put trust in leading private corporations to get economic growth going and have Economic Development Boards exhort us to increase our individual effort to break the SA mindset, work harder and pull together towards achieving common goals.
Big business, competition and the free market will see us right.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at February 13, 2003 07:39 AM
Comments
South Australia IS a place with an anti-growth mindset. Many people here prefer to have their green and pleasant suburbia paradise undisturbed.
It's not that competition or the free market will turn things around. It won't and that is because of the negative attitude of South Australian people to new ideas. And it's not just in business or politics. You might not recall or care about how opposed the SA footy league was about joining the AFL, now it's hard to imagine anything else. It's just typical of the lack of forward thinking, and the 'we can't or shouldnt do it' attitude.
This is why so many of the younger people leave. There's no opportunity here. And it's not because of the mistakes of the previous state governments.
It's a lifestyle choice.
Posted by: Scott Wickstein at February 13, 2003 11:26 AM
I seem to remember the 'dynamic' and 'forward-thinking' Victorians opposing the entry of non-Victorian teams into the AFL even more vigorously than people in SA feeling a bit uncertain about joining it. Keeping on the topic of Aussie Rules, there's also the little matter of the handball.
Posted by: dj at February 13, 2003 01:58 PM
If suburbia is bad what is good? The global city of Sydney open to new ideas,innovative practices and foward-looking policies?
Is it suburban Sydney or inner city city Sydney?
You r football example doesn't work for me--I thought that Port Adelaide tried to get in but was blocked by the group of other clubs and businesses.
So Port Adelaide was not dynamic and open to new ideas?
I also thought that it was a young team full of young players who wanted to play footy in Adelaide for Port?
I reckon its more complex than the blanket claim of every one trapped in the SA mindset.
Posted by: Gary Sauer-Thompson at February 13, 2003 07:18 PM
The then VFL was pushing for a South Australian team as early as 1985.
I wasn't saying that suburbia is good or bad (I like my suburb too.)
But if you want to keep the suburb, you have to give up things as the money all dries up. Less Symphony Orchestras (and hospitals and education too.)
If you want a healthy public sector, you need a healthy private sector to pay for it all. But South Australians don't want to do this. It's not a matter of left vs right- Blue ribbon Toorak is just as full of NIMBY's (even more so) then Semaphore.
Lets see if these cultural stalwarts are up to dynamic and innovative ways of generating new income. Somehow, I doubt it.
Posted by: Scott Wickstein at February 14, 2003 01:03 AM