Escape from State Admin – to a Festival tower?

South Australia’s top public servants will have to wait a little while longer to move out of their ageing digs in Victoria Square.

The 1960s-era State Administration Centre, which houses the Department of Premier and Cabinet as well as Treasury, has long been the bane of the state government’s property portfolio, with attempts to fob it off to a private developer dating all the way back to 2008.

Time to move out? The State Admin Centre on Victoria Square.

The condition of the uninspiring building is no secret within the state’s political circles.

In a budget estimates hearing on Thursday, Opposition leader David Speirs asked Premier Peter Malinauskas what was behind a $178 million improvement in the state government’s land and property valuation, to which Malinauskas replied: “Well it won’t be the State Admin.”

Speirs then quipped: “Not sure if it’s worth that much. You’d have to pay someone that much to take it.”

The Opposition Leader then asked the obvious question: is the state government planning to move into the 38-storey second Festival Plaza tower slated for behind Parliament House?

No plans are afoot to move key government departments to the second Festival Tower, Premier Peter Malinauskas says. Image: supplied

Malinauskas said there were no immediate plans to move out out of the State Admin building – although it’s clear he wants to.

“I don’t mind saying… that at some point that’s probably going to have to happen,” he said.

“Most other agencies within government’s accommodation is well and truly superior to the accommodation for – don’t get too excited – DPC and DTF, and that’s I think pretty well known.

“It’s an old building. Where we park our cars out the back, like it feels like there’s a permanent line-up of Rawsons Electrical vehicles… the lifts seem to be having to get repaired every five minutes.

“It’s just an old building and at some point, someone’s going to have to do it eventually.”

Malinauskas added that “if we have the aspiration for state governments to be in green star rated buildings… then we’re well and truly failing that benchmark”.

“But to answer your question, there has been no decision made of government to move DPC or DTF as things stand today.”

InSider doesn’t usually take bets. But here goes: We bet that somewhere down the track, DPC and Treasury will move into a second Festival Plaza tower. And the State Admin building – with its glorious views over Victoria Square and looking west to the beach and golden sunsets – will be offered for “adaptive reuse” such as apartments.

Subtlety is key

One thing InSider does excel at? Subtlety. And it seems we’re not alone. Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith celebrated her birthday this week, and was extremely subtle about it.

Our first hint that something was up? A simple quiz on the Lord Mayor’s Instagram story.

What’s this? How nice, she’s provided a fun little quiz with a backdrop of her official portrait to lighten the mood and get her followers’ brains whirring.

Okay, InSider thought, we’ll play along.

We wagered a guess that it was the anniversary of Garfield’s first publication, only to be told we were wrong, it was actually the anniversary of the Lord Mayor’s birth.

But J-LO was not done yet. And nor should she be. InSider is a firm believer that birthdays should be celebrated as much as possible, after all, they are the one day a year you can make everything about you without it being seen as distasteful.

The Lord Mayor took her celebrations to the grid, posting a cool video of her successfully shooting some hoops as she thanked everyone for the birthday “swishes”.

Happy birthday J-LO, and thanks for the inspiration for how to subtly let everyone know it’s our birthday.

Nuclear power: Not on the agenda

There’s a common saying in the world of journalism: “Follow the money”.

On the same day that the Coalition announced its uncosted nuclear power policy, Adelaide hosted the South Australian Energy Developments Conference.

Touted as the “key networking forum for South Australia’s dynamic energy sector”, the event featured the likes of Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis, ElectraNet COO Rainer Korte, EnergyAustralia development director Nipun Arora and SA Power Networks’ chief customer and strategy officer Jessica Morris.

InSider took a look at what the energy gurus were chatting about, and topics ranged from gas to solar to hydrogen – but there was not a single panel or speaker talking about nuclear.

Everyone there was probably acquainted with the recent CSIRO report, which found that the bill to power Australia with nuclear energy would be roughly twice as much as renewables.

On the day of Peter Dutton’s nuclear policy drop, The Australian ran an energy supplement, and nuclear took up a tiny section of the page. The snippet wasn’t even in favour of the power source, but cited the CSIRO report.

The next day? A double-page spread for Dutton’s plan. Hmmm.