State Election 2010

[Wayno]

I don't agree with scrapping the thinker program, but it's no good having fly-in temporary thinkers who keep covering similar territory (depending upon the agenda of the govt du jour) without a team of 'professional' locals who can take the advice and run with it in a holistic manner - hence the Chief Architect's office which exists everywhere except Adelaide - no brainer really...

[SRW]

If the government are looking for good ideas to file away somewhere, then why not start locally. Even forums such as Sensational-Adelaide, and other respected communities in South Australia are great places for to start looking for ideas. It's not like we have a shortage of excellent architects, urban planners, academics who can give direction for a future south australia. Why do we need a Thinkers in Residence program when Adelaidians are already abuzz with wildly exciting ideas. That's my

That's true. But it's also true that great ideas come from outside our state, and that an outside perspective is often crucial for change or advancement. It seems to me that the Thinkers-in-Residence programme is one (more-or-less effective) way of tapping into that resource. It doesn't in any way exclude local ingenuity from the picture, either -- indeed, it may help draw it out.

[Howie]

I'm sure they wouldn't have to go far to get an outside perspective, I could put them in touch with several thinkers/come do'ers tomorrow if they wanted. They happen to browse Sensational-Adelaide actually, in fact one person is a current serving Councillor in a major Asian city, another is one of the youngest ministers in charge of economic policies in a tiger economy, another is a well respected Venezuelan business man. Right here at S-A there's a huge resource they could potentially tap into if they bothered to.

My point is, we spend millions of dollars on a think tank that meets once a year, and not a cent on well established communities like this one which both could do roughly the same thing. Not exactly the smartest thing to do IMHO.

[cruel_world00]

Fair enough, we have brilliant minds in SA. BUT I think there's always room for an alternative voice of reason that the Thinkers In Residence can bring. Surely it's not a total waste. Sensational Adelaide, of all groups, should understand this.

[Prince George]

Howie, the program is not a once-a-year love-in, we get eminent people to come and spends weeks to months of their time specifically on issues in South Australia. The thoughts of these people simply costs money, their time is in demand around the world. I'm sure that the people that you listed aren't in the habit of giving their time away.

I think that people are perhaps a little confused about what to expect from a program that operates on a modest budget. Perhaps we get so dazzled by the sums of money being bandied around for various projects -- $60m for a swim centre, $300m for a stadium, $250m for an underpass, $1.8b for a hospital, $800m - $2.2b for various freeways (and that just for building, let alone operating them) -- that we lose perspective on just how much bigger those numbers are than the $4m for the thinker's program. For the price of the hospital, you could expand the T-i-R program to ten times its current size for the next 40 years. If we're expecting stadium sized benefits, we need to be looking at stadium sized budgets.

The other thing to consider with this is that Adelaide (and Australia generally) has to fight against the disadvantage of being so isolated. Larger cities or cities in more populous areas get the benefit of drawing on a larger base of people to provide expertise to them, and a New York, London, or Tokyo attract people through their prestige. I see the thinkers-in-residence as a way of working against what could otherwise turn into a "geography is destiny" situation.

[Howie]

Certainly understand the motivation behind the Thinkers program, but how does it affect policy? How do we as taxpayers see how this translates to tangible results, is there some form of benchmarking? All well and good if they did take on the suggestions made by the resident expert, but if the public cannot see the end result then at very least they haven't marketed it properly and at very worse they haven't done anything about it. We've had fly-in architects and planning experts in our city before advocating higher densities in the CBD, how has this been translated into public policy? And how do we fair in comparison to other major capital cities? The program only highlights our inadequacy to act upon good advice. Once again this is just my own opinion, but i'm sure many of you share my frustrations.

[Omicron]

1

Thinkers in Residences is a waste of time and taxpayers resources, business leaders have been saying that for ages now. How about a Do'ers in Residence program, starting with appointing a chief architect for our city.

Business leaders aren't always the fonts of wisdom they are put up to be. Sure many may be successful in their particular field, but business is often not about innovation. It's quite a conservative activity, with people doing things the way things have always been done, while all the time trying to get a competitive advantage by getting one over on whatever competitor or authority is "in their way". Business often takes a long time to adopt new ideas, as not many investors look favourably on those who stick their necks out. This leads to a culture of subversion instead of innovation.

This is one of the reasons people have been disappointed with the lack of architectural merit in recent developments; businesses going down the safe non-innovative path.

The Thinkers in Residence programme is a soft target for those looking to "cut government expenditure". But in the grand scheme of things, it costs very little, promotes discussion in the fields it intersects, and eventually leads to progress, whereas the alternative is monolithic entropy.

You'd like that, Mono! It has only one thing instead of two things.

[Omicron]

Incidentally, I'm unconvinced about the practical usefulness of a State Architect - sounds like another overpaid, fancy-named consultant to me.

[Wayno]

Incidentally, I'm unconvinced about the practical usefulness of a State Architect - sounds like another overpaid, fancy-named consultant to me.

There would undoubtedly be a degree of bureaucracy with a State Architects's office, but i'd greatly prefer having one over not.

Also, perhaps rather than calling it "The State Architect's Office" we should call it "The Office Of Collecting Ideas From Various Sources And Having Experts Collate Into A Grand Plan So We Can Execute Projects In A Structured Manner And Avoid Paying The Next Bunch Of Thinkers For Regurgitating The Same Stuff".

Note how nicely it rolls off the tongue - just needs an intuitive acronym that's all...

[Omicron]

Incidentally, I'm unconvinced about the practical usefulness of a State Architect - sounds like another overpaid, fancy-named consultant to me.

There would undoubtedly be a degree of bureaucracy with a State Architects's office, but i'd greatly prefer having one over not.

Also, perhaps rather than calling it "The State Architect's Office" we should call it "The Office Of Collecting Ideas From Various Sources And Having Experts Collate Into A Grand Plan So We Can Execute Projects In A Structured Manner And Avoid Paying The Next Bunch Of Thinkers For Regurgitating The Same Stuff".

Note how nicely it rolls off the tongue - just needs an intuitive acronym that's all...

What concerns me is that it could become 'The Office Of A Person Who Says Nice Things In Public About Architecture But Because All Government Projects Go To Tender Doesn't Necessarily Have Any Actual Influence Upon The Design Of Government Projects Outside Of The Existing Project Guidlelines To Which All Tenderers Would Be Held, And For Obvious Reasons Doesn't Have Any Influence On Private Developments Except During The Application Process, But Most Councils Tend To Have Architects On Their Assessment Panels Anyway'.

[Wayno]

What concerns me is that it could become 'The Office Of A Person Who Says Nice Things In Public About Architecture But Because All Government Projects Go To Tender Doesn't Necessarily Have Any Actual Influence Upon The Design Of Government Projects Outside Of The Existing Project Guidlelines To Which All Tenderers Would Be Held, And For Obvious Reasons Doesn't Have Any Influence On Private Developments Except During The Application Process, But Most Councils Tend To Have Architects On Their Assessment Panels Anyway'.

Splitter! Perhaps the "People's Front of..."?

[rhino]

...this might just convince me to at least leave the Libs off my sheet. Do they plan on cutting everything back to the barest of essentials, so that the state effectively just treads water and nothing more?

Isn't that what every Liberal Government has done in this state since David Tonkin?

[Shuz]

Furthermore, to those who've voted thus far, I surely don't believe that some of those 21 people will actually be voting Liberal...

I'm under the impression what's to happen (or has happened) is that because all the polls to date have shown Labor to win quite comfortably, that people, and would-be Liberal voters would (or have) just direct(ed) their votes to Labor anyway, because they lack belief that Liberals actually stand any chance to adequately represent their electorates, let alone win the state over.

I'm predicting large swings to minor parties - Greens, Family First in particular, as more people look to be represented by the opposing left and right wing agendas of these parties, as compared to the centre-right duopoly of Labor/Liberal.

How does the voting system in SA work? Is it one-choice, or preference based? It'll be my first State Election to vote in - I've already voted in a Federal Election.

[Hooligan]

How does the voting system in SA work? Is it one-choice, or preference based? It'll be my first State Election to vote in - I've already voted in a Federal Election.

How voting works in SA:
1. go to polling pace
2. get name crossed off of book.
3. walk out

The end

[rhino]

Hooligan, I hope you realise that by doing that, you don't have any right to complain about government. Voting is you opportunity to make a difference - if you waste it, then you don't get to whinge.