Adelaide – heaps indifferent! (Part one)

It has also lost its country readers. Why read a paper that doesn't mention regional issues at all? These are the invisible South Australians. Agriculture, forestry and fishing contributes about $4.5 billion of GSP. They are the backbone of the state and deserve much more recognition.

In Adelaide, 75 per cent of the stories are PR puff pieces and '101 things we love about SA stories'. The 'Isn't SA great?' stories have much the same effect as mollycoddling an over sensitive child. Why attack the hard things in life such as economic degeneration and youth unemployment, when one can get praise by simply eating a Haigh's chocolate and washing it down with a Coopers Ale?

Morning radio (except the ABC) doesn't break stories. It simply repeats the headlines from the Tiser, which were written the night before. The media conflict model of the last 30 years is dead. Unfortunately, it has left behind an uninformed public who predominantly think in binary terms or who resort to the default position: blame the ALP vs Libs or blame the unions and the public service.

The proclivity for blaming state political parties is a hangover from the days when state governments actually did something. In SA, the Houses of Parliament have as much influence on the long-term direction of the state economy as a lone tree does in blocking the wind. None of the problems facing the state can be solved by binary thinking, by blaming, comparing or drinking ice coffee.

If the public is disengaged, if there are not fierce arguments in the front bars of hotels, at dinner parties, BBQs and kitchen tables, about the direction of the state, then the state will continue to slide in to penury.

In the next episode to be published in Opinion Online, we'll talk about what the year 2017 holds for South Australia. I'll also provide some news on what Adelaide can do about its plight.