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Your views: on beer prices, retirement policy, privatisation and a chip on our shoulder

Today, readers comment on the cost of a cold one at Adelaide Oval, affording retirement, who benefits from public transport privatisation, and being positive about SA.

Oct 10, 2019, updated Oct 10, 2019

Commenting on the story: Acclaimed laneway bar closes doors

Interesting, the comment on a Rundle Mall bar that has gone into liquidation.

Beer prices have been relatively stable for the past 10 years, but it is rent prices that have gone up.

What is Adelaide Oval Stadium Management’s justification for its prices rising?

Probably because we can! – Bill Hecker

Commenting on the opinion piece: Retirement policies need to change now to avert a crisis

This article  is very important to me as I am 70 years old and am living off my superannuation, as my assets exceed the Centrelink pension limit.

When my husband and I were working, we planned to do this.

My point is anyone who has superannuation should be living off their balance before applying for a government  pension.

Why doesn’t  the government enforce this? – Kerri Moore

From my experience there needs to be a complete change of attitude towards older workers, particularly in the public service.

Incoming CEOs and managers seek and get immediate “runs on the board” by squeezing or outright bullying out older workers, claiming cost benefits as younger workers have not yet earned higher levels in the role.

Euphemisms such as  “a fresh new approach”, or supposedly meritorious weeding out  of “rusted on” or “past their use by date” workers disguise dumping older workers as easy targets to make quick savings.

A solution is to add keeping older workers, perhaps on an age ratio basis, to KPIs.   

Across all sectors, a focus on removing current prejudice against age is essential. 

Ageism is rife and little is being done on either a stick or carrot basis to change entrenched and outdated attitudes. Penni Fletcher Hughes

Commenting on the story: Potential train and tram operator accused of “coaching” Govt on privatisation spin

Keolis is a transport company that operates and provides staff for various transit operations throughout the world.

It almost lost its franchise rights in the UK for one of its operations through extremely poor operational performance, and it appears The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has decided to allow its contract with Keolis to run out and not be renewed.

In the UK, Keolis’s poor performance led to questions in Parliament and the Southern was beset with staff strikes in 2016 due to manning levels.

I speculate that the business model for any private operator will be; put in a low quote and drive revenue upwards by blaming the government for conditions that were not anticipated when the bid was put in and were not included in the tender documents.

These are easily “created” as holding operators to their responsibilities would show the Minister up in a bad light. So, poor performance goes unpunished or even rewarded.

There is no need to privatise the rail or tram systems in Adelaide in order to save money.

There is an easy $50m per year to be collected by any government which has the most basic knowledge on transport economics. Geoff Moore

It’s ironic at a time when the Liberals are trying to extol the virtues of giving the public transport system to private companies, that in other parts of the world, governments are taking back ownership.

In Manchester, for example, privatising the public transport system was a complete disaster, the net consequence of which was: “‘Passenger numbers have plunged since the service was privatised in 1986, with the number of annual journeys falling by 45% from 355m then to 195m in last year.” (The Guardian, June 24, 2019)

It’s hard to believe that we are having this conversation about privatisation which has produced such appalling consequences in Australia and around the world, for so many services which should be owned by the community, including public (so to speak) transport. – Cathy Chua

Commenting on the opinion piece: Richardson: The unique chip on our collective shoulder

Tom finishes his piece with the biggest chip of all. We as a state need to work out the areas “in which we can lead the way”.

Then, in the middle of his article; “on almost every measure we are near the bottom”.

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By many measures, we are near the top and we are leading the way.

We hold the biggest Fringe event every year. We have 3 major world class wine regions and produce the most wine of any state in Australia.

We have the largest collection of Aboriginal art of any art gallery in Australia. We are the largest barley producer in Australia.

We produce the largest amount of renewable energy of any state in Australia. We suffered the largest bushfire along with Victoria, with the greatest number of houses and lives lost. We are a resilient bunch.

We Adelaide are in the top 10 of the most liveable cities in the world.

And the list goes on.

This list needs to be fact-checked, but it is pretty close.

We are leading the way it’s just as Tom says – we and him suffer from a collective chip on our shoulders.

And because of our collective chips we are unable to retain our best and brightest students who cross the border or go overseas.

To retain our young people we need to present to them a reason to stay. The answer lies in where we already lead the way.

We build our commitment and investment in renewables and embrace everything to do with saving the planet. We market our commitment to the world.

We stand out like a beacon of hope in this country of ours. – James Hill

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