The Big Whingers in Adelaide are quite special.

They whinge about whingers. It’s a growth industry, blossoming in South Australia.

It’s a hotly contested field because whingeing about whingers gets attention, enabling a person to rise above the media’s obsession with B-grade Instagram influencer wannabes and runners-up from The Block, who have split with their partner but miss their dog.

Big Whingers sound visionary, able to see trends and opportunities the hoi polloi simply cannot grasp. They sincerely believe they know what’s best for our great state.

These Big Whingers, and they’re drawn from across the political and business spectrum, dismiss Adelaide’s Little Whingers as a “noisy minority”, the ultimate put down to any individual or group worried about what is happening to their state, their city, their suburb or their street.

Bruce Djite, CEO of something called the Committee for Adelaide, frequently bemoans what he sees as the small-town thinking holding SA back from greatness.

It’s a theme running through his columns in The Advertiser.

On October 10, Bruce figured in a Tiser article on the government’s surprise decision to trash the heritage-listed former police barracks to make way for the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

While revealing he wasn’t sure if this was “the absolute optimum site”, he said more broadly it had been “nauseating to hear the amount of outcry for anything progressive in the state”.

“If you look at the past, the outcomes of listening to or actioning what minority voices say has materially damaged the brand of SA,” Mr Djite said.

In August, he told the paper’s Michael McGuire that while he loved Adelaide, he fears our city isn’t fulfilling its potential, and may never do so.

“(Adelaide is) the most reluctant place to change that I’ve ever lived so that’s why I’m so passionate,’’ Djite said.

Really, Bruce? You need to get out more.

In May, in a column on population growth, he concluded that “we must dispel the ‘can’t do’ state of mind and the few, yet loud voices, who for too long have held this state back”.

Who are these “few, yet loud voices”? How have they held this state back?

Premier Peter Malinauskas is barely six months into the job but he’s showing a few Big Whinge moves.

Liberal sources tell me Djite is in the mix for Liberal preselection to contest an Unley by-election when sitting member David Pisoni pulls the pin, possibly mid-term, around 2024.

He’d be a solid addition to the Liberal ranks but the once-safe seat now hangs by a fraying thread on a 2.2 per cent margin – one of the state’s most marginal electorates.

Labor, with Greens preferences, clobbered Pisoni with a 9.4 per cent swing at the March election. Imagine what fun they’d have in a by-election running in a heritage-heavy seat against a candidate who finds anti-development voices “nauseating”. Just a thought.

Last weekend, former foreign minister Alexander Downer told The Australian’s David Penberthy that progress in Adelaide is being held back by “squeaky wheelers” who are driving young people away by “turning the city into a museum”.

Mr Downer, now London-based as executive chairman of something called the International School for Government at King’s College, said for too long Adelaide had been held captive by a “narrow-minded, change-averse” minority.

“I have become very unsympathetic to politicians in SA who keep blocking projects because of these squeaky wheelers,” Mr Downer said.

“These are people who have all the money in the world and live in lovely houses and good luck to them … but there is no need to deny it to other people. They are a particular demographic and I am sorry to say they have been listened to more by the Liberal Party than the Labor Party over the years.”

Who are these “squeaky wheelers”? C’mon Alexander, name names. Dob in a few establishment mates. Sadly, we are left in the dark.

Downer’s former Adelaide Hills seat of Mayo, once a Liberal fortress, is now firmly in the grip of former Nick Xenophon Team member, now independent, Rebekha Sharkie.

She’s become the longest-serving female cross-bencher since federation, which says something about our federation. She’ll hold Mayo for as long as she wants it.

What’s her secret? Sharkie listens to the “squeaky wheelers”, not those squeaking from the mansions, like the former Downer Dynasty pile in the hills, but the small voices of the many local community groups who feel abandoned by the major parties.

It is easy to dismiss concerns by individuals or groups, such as those fighting to preserve our heritage and parklands, as a “noisy minority”. You hear it a lot. And yet almost overwhelmingly they are polite, softly-spoken, well-informed and love this city to bits.

On Tuesday night, some 300 locals packed into a West Torrens Council meeting wanting to have a proper say in plans by the Adelaide Crows to gobble up precious open space for its new HQ at Thebarton Oval.

The council rejected their plea, leaving them with vague hints they may be consulted down the track. Or not.

Who is in the minority here? A handful of councillors in caretaker mode? Or the 300 people wanting a say in what’s left of their open space?

What are the odds of these “squeaky wheelers” being heard? In Adelaide, the squeaky wheels that get oiled are developers, unions and our two AFL clubs, lubricated with taxpayer handouts.

Premier Peter Malinauskas is barely six months into the job but he’s showing a few Big Whinge moves.

Earlier this month, he had a crack at those opposed to his new $3 billion WCH and the new Crows HQ.

“I think that sometimes there have been occasions in the past where voices of a minority opinion have been given a disproportionate amount of airtime in a way that drowns out majority opinion,” he told the Tiser’s Paul Starick.

Does the Premier dismiss the annoying mob of numpties from Extinction Rebellion – who glue themselves to roads or precious artworks – as a “noisy minority” given a disproportionate amount of air time? He wouldn’t dare.

Is the Premier referring to the Shoppies Union, a noisy minority that drowns out majority support for shop trading reform?

Or maybe the minority voices he says he listened to during his Labor Listens tours across the city and state while in Opposition?

Before the election, he told me that Labor Listens was a good example of the freedom he had to go out and hear the voices of our community, something that was “harder to do from government”.

“Because you wake up in the morning as minister and you’re just inundated with just keeping on top of your brief,” he said.

Yes, Minister, indeed you are. But there’s no point whingeing about it.

Matthew Abraham’s weekly analysis of local politics is published on Fridays.

Matthew can be found on Twitter as @kevcorduroy. It’s a long story.