A retirement truce in the pokies wars?

There’s been no shortage of tributes for outgoing pub lobby boss Ian Horne.

The long-time Australian Hotels Association SA branch chief exec – who was instrumental in the push to legalise pokies in South Australia in the early 1990s – was celebrated by the state’s pub industry leaders in a retirement dinner at Adelaide Oval’s Ian McLachlan room earlier this month, with Premier Peter Malinauskas leading the chorus of testimonials.

After the dinner, the AHA published a list of written tributes to Horne in its bi-monthly magazine, Hotel SA.

AHA SA CEO Ian Horne, Premier Peter Malinauskas and AHA SA chair David Basheer at an industry event last year. Photo: AHA SA/LinkedIn

The special “Ian Horne Retirement Issue” features blurbs from several prominent SA publicans as well as Malinauskas, federal Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell and former Liberal Treasurer Rob Lucas.

But there was one tribute that the InSider didn’t expect to see in the pages of the AHA’s industry rag.

Former South Australian Council of Social Service executive director Mark Henley – a strong advocate against legalising gaming machines, and a go-to talking head for media wanting quotes on pokies reform – submitted a one-and-a-half-page tribute to Horne for being a “sensational advocate” over his more than 30-year career.

“I’m no doubt best known by AHA for advocacy opposing the introduction and proliferation of poker machines, but there were matters we agreed on too,” he wrote.

“I also reflect that, arguably, Ian’s greatest strength is that he has always been respectful – unlike other parts of the gambling industry.

“He has never sought to intimidate or to belittle people who disagree. Above all Ian was, is and remains a decent human being who treats colleagues and opponents alike with dignity and respect.”

Henley, who is now Uniting Communities’ advocacy manager, declined in his tribute to “re-prosecute” the pokies argument while writing in enemy territory.

He did, however, provide his recollection of the fight to legalise pokies in 1992.

“I vividly remember leading a delegation to meet with Premier John Bannon and eloquently putting our case for the Government to reject the proposal to legislate to bring pokies into SA,” Henley wrote.

“I recall concluding our case and the Premier looking me in the eye and saying, ‘I agree with everything that you have said Mark’. My pulse quickened momentarily thinking that our campaign had been successful.

“‘But’ the Premier continued, ‘we need them to help boost the economy’. And with the long shadows of the State Bank debt looming over the State Budget … my heart sank.

“Ian Horne had beaten us to the Cabinet, the die was cast. South Australia was going to have poker machines.”

Horne is due to depart the AHA on July 10.

Exploration of the common grey block

A maintenance shed for a University of Queensland cricket team has won the Queensland architecture industry’s highest award and could be a solution for Adelaide’s park lands.

The cricket maintenance shed that won at the Queensland Architecture awards (Photo: David Chatfield)

The “abstract and monolithic” shed, by Lineburg Wang and Steve Hunt Architect, was described by the award’s jury as being a celebration of cost efficiencies in an exploration of the “common grey block”. It also won an award for small project architecture and was rewarded for being “a small project playing in a much larger game” as well as being able to outwit cost constraints, as reported by InDaily sister publication InQueensland.

“This project exceeds expectations, showcasing the profession’s unique and exceptional capacity to produce the most triumphant outcomes under the most constrained circumstances,” according to the jury.

Could it be a solution to Adelaide’s sports hub problems in the park lands?

Maybe, because according to jury chair Paul Jones, it’s more than a block cricket gear shed.

“The architects have really gone above and beyond to deliver an exceptional building,” he said.

“The shed type always struggles with budget but they worked with the contractor and the client to outwit that budget by using a simple construction method. The architects took it a step further and looked at how they could use the blockwork to make an exceptional building. That level of inventiveness is quite extraordinary.

“It has a public presence and it has a front of house quality about it a sets up future development. It’s also a place where people work and they have provided amenity for the building and the people who occupy it.”

What’s in a name

It’s a great headline to draw in talk-back radio and the tabloids: Australia’s top nickname!

But as local stations went to air with the recent Aussie nickname statistics released by Snapchat, the InSider discovered a new fault in our country’s education system: no one seems to have been taught the difference between a nickname and a term of endearment.

“nickname”

noun

1. a familiar or humorous name given to a person or thing instead of or as well as the real name.

“endearment”

noun

1. a word or phrase expressing love or affection.

Snapchat says the number one nickname in Australia is “Baby”, but unless you’re Spice Girls’ Baby Spice, it is probably just a term of endearment.

Just think about it, does every single person in your life know you as “darling”, or is it just your partner and/or parent? And “Bae” is just wrong.

The InSider thinks we should just stick with calling Barry “Bazza” and Sarah “Sez”.

Here, there but not everywhere

In the midst of a housing crisis, South Australia’s politicians believe we urgently need to build more homes everywhere – except in their own electorates.

Treasurer Stephen Mullighan, selling his Budget to a Property Council lunch at SkyCity this week, gave urban infill a big tick.

It was, in fact, “critical” to South Australia’s future.

With one caveat – not in his electorate or any suburbs. At least, not as the development is currently practised.

It’s been a theme with this Government. They like the idea of infill, but not the reality when angry constituents get annoyed by all the cars parked on their street after a big block is carved into pieces (they also like the idea of urban sprawl).

After a Budget in which he sought to make it easier for first home buyers to enter the market, Mullighan put some conditions on where they should be able to buy these houses.

In his electorate, suburbs like West Lakes and Royal Park, the Treasurer said, had so much infill that it was like Football Park had reopened. Heaven forbid.

“That’s okay if the dwellings are delivered in a way which fits in with the rest of the street and the community but increasingly there’s basically no driveways, no off-street car parking and you’ve gone from a street with 20 dwellings and 50 people on it to a street with 60 dwellings and 120 people living on it,” he said.

“People have had enough of that. I’m not saying we’re ending that…”

Ocea Apartments in West Lakes awarded the Best Medium Density Housing at the 2022 UDIA Awards.

Instead, Mullighan, a former housing and urban development minister, wants “properly planned” medium and high density housing to be supercharged in the city and its immediate surrounds. And he reckons the Government can drive this with its own land holdings.

In a Q&A with new Property Council Executive Director Bruce Djite, who proved himself to be a sharp interviewer, Mullighan promised that the government would push for much more “strategic” infill in Adelaide’s heart.

“We are also increasingly going to identify Government-owned sites and take those to market and make those available to developers in a similar vein to how we did with Bowden,” he said.

Watch these spaces.

Adelaide’s global ranking

The annual Economist Liveability Survey had its usual gushing impact this week with the Premier’s department declaring “Adelaide has surged up The Economist’s 2023 Global Liveability Index, rising from 30th to 12th to be one of the most liveable cities on earth.” On earth no less! (Note to Premier’s copywriter: you can’t surge anywhere but up)

But no one ever seems to state that this index is put together for major corporations so their human resources department know how much “hardship” pay expats will expect when sent abroad. Being liveable doesn’t always trump a fat pay packet when fishing for skilled workforces.

But the really great headline this week was from the Adelaide Economic Development Agency declaring “Adelaide Ranks in Top Five for Start Up Performances in Oceania”. Oceania no less!

Source: Wikipedia

A quick check of the atlas shows that being anywhere outside of the top five in Oceania might be a huge problem… and the Startup Genome website the report is gleaned from does seem to prattle on about Adelaide a tad too much to be that reliable. One interesting stat, though, the massive year-on-year exit amount seems to be from Toby selling out of Sweat. One deal.

Source: Startup Genome

Talking about the Fringe

Still on numbers, Mumbrella has published stats from HypeAuditor, a website that helps influencers track their influence and charge appropriately. It dug out a stat showing the Adelaide Fringe ranked 7^th in Australia for mentions on Instagram. A pretty good effort when it beats Bunnings and the Sydney Mardi Gras.

But, alas, when looking at the numbers in the chart above, the total reach of the mentions isn’t as highly ranked. What’s also interesting is how tiny the numbers are for all the brands. The data was based on analysis of 14,198 posts shared by Instagram influencers based in Australia, gathered from 1 January 2023 to 30 April 2023.

The Fringe will no doubt dazzle with more stats when it releases its economic impact statement on Monday.

Welcoming back international students

Still on numbers, the University of Adelaide has reported that the number of international students is rebounding.

“If you thought there seemed to be more international students around town recently, you’d be right,” the uni wrote.

Enrolments are recovering strongly with 8836 international students enrolled with the University of Adelaide in the first half of this year.  Demand in the second half of the year has reached an all -time high, with 10,400 applicants applying to commence with the University. This is over 80 per cent ahead of the same time last year and exceeds all previous years.

A Utopian consultation

“The days have been getting shorter, but the list of YourSAy engagements online keeps getting longer,” declared the first line of yesterday’s June update from the consultative government website that begs the public for feedback on everything from “tourism to transport to the environment”

But like the Premier’s copywriter above, the YourSAy bureaucrats might want to check their wording.

A long list of government projects languishing in consultation – there are 11 in the June update – probably isn’t what Joe-public expects of their government or public service.

The South Aussies waking up this morning to flooding and other emergencies probably wish that the “Public Information and Warnings in Emergencies – Alert SA” project was finished.

InSider can hardly wait for the summer solstice for when the list will presumably be halved.

Stuff you should know…

This is the final countdown. There are 100 days to go before the 19^th Australian Masters Games hit Adelaide in October, so if you were thinking of participating in any one of the more than 50 sports on offer, you only have 99 more sleeps to get fit enough not to do a hammy in October.

This year new sports include Indoor Interactive Cycling, Yoga Sports and Pickleball – with the InSider having it on good authority that nude pickleball was knocked back for some reason.

But no matter, the expected 10,000 clothed participants will enjoy all that Adelaide has on offer as the game headquarters and party central will be on the Festival Plaza from 7-14 October.