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February 13, 2003
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.
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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.