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January 13, 2012
Mike Rann and Kevin Foley have finally gone after a decade of running South Australia. The achievements of their Labor Government for the state during this period have been mostly buried beneath media spin including all the nonsense about having to maintain the state's Triple A rating. There was so much spin during this period that it came to define the Labor government itself; so much so that it lost credibility and public trust.
Can the Labor Government under Jay Weatherill reinvent itself whilst ensuring that car manufacturing (Holden) stays in SA? The argument for ongoing subsidies and government bailouts to a global car industry is that a manufacturing base prevents Australia from being the quarry for the Asia Pacific.
The car is a big issue in SA politics---and it is not limited to General Motors Holden's plans to pull up stakes. Adelaide is car centric. For instance, the lack of comprehensive, long-term public transport plan for the state means that Adelaide City Council vision of an open, liveable city frequented by bikes, pedestrians and public transport commuters not swamped by slow-moving cars remains just a vision.
Business---ie Rundle Mall--- resist the reduction of on-street parking so as to allow footpaths to be widened and enhance pedestrian activity. Why? Shoppers will be slugged an extra cost to use multistory car parks. So they shop in the suburbs. The overheated rhetoric from the car owners is that a reduction in on-street parking means bleeding consumers dry and closing Adelaide down. The car is sacred.
One of the reasons the car is sacred is because of the low density suburbia built on the urban fringe, thereby forcing people into cars on on our now congested roads.
So I don't expect much to change with the e Labor government apart the style.The most we can expect is competent administration.
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I wonder why there is no comments box for the previous post, "A Radically Changing Internet"?