The SA Politics Thread

[rev]

Waste of time. If Premiers, or ministers, are up to no good, they're not going to pencil in their play dates in their diaries.

So many more important issues that affect our every day lives.

[Bobski]

At least he's stopped pretending the video was an AI deep fake

Former SA Liberal leader David Speirs started using cocaine "as a form of escapism" about two months before supplying it to two adults on two different occasions, a court has heard.

David James Speirs, 40, appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday where his lawyer, William Mickan, told the court his client started using cocaine in June 2024, when it was offered to him by a "third party" to cope with stress.

Last month, Speirs pleaded guilty to two charges of supplying a controlled substance to another person between August 1 and August 10, 2024, at Kingston Park.

Speirs was arrested at Berri, in the state's Riverland region, in September.

This came after a video, published by News Corp, showed the former MP snorting from a plate. The charges do not relate to the video

The former Liberal leader resigned from politics after the charges were laid.

...

"The media didn't destroy this man's reputation … he did," [DPP Martin Hinton KC] said.

"It is very much in the public interest that they report on this, you cannot put yourself up for public office, accept public office, hold public office, and then expect that you will not be held to the standards that go with holding public office.

"He gets to sit in parliament, debate how the rest of us should conduct ourselves, tell us how we should conduct ourselves, contribute to the debate, set the maximum penalty and then expect it to be enforced.

"There's an element of hypocrisy in then coming into this court and saying 'however don't apply that to me'."

Mr Mickan told the court that Speirs has good prospects for rehabilitation and has plans to walk the Kokoda Track.

"The reason for that is two-fold: one is to raise money for men's mental health, but he also wants to do it for his own rehabilitation and restoration," he said.

He also asked for a conviction not to be recorded against his client, so he can travel overseas, but said a fine or a good behaviour bond would be appropriate.

Meanwhile, Mr Hinton asked the court to impose a conviction against Speirs and asked for a "significant" fine to be imposed.

Speirs will be sentenced on April 24

Source

[HiTouch]

Attended the South Australia Industry Climate Change Conference last week at the Convention Centre, which included a Panel on Future Cities. There were 4 panelists: 1 from Singapore spruiking some city architecural award, 1 from Green Adelaide, 1 from SA Planning Commision and the Lord Mayor. People could send in questions using an app. 27 Questions were submitted by people representing industries all over South Australia, most questions focused on public transport, regional infrastructure and smart city planning.

This is what happened:
- Everyone introduced themselves,
- then they went into blindspots (threats) and brightspots (opportunities). The Singapore panellist outlined a lack of cycling infrastructure and rambled about Singapore as if nobody in the room had ever seen the city.
- The SA Planning Commision Director spoke about driverless Ubers in LA as a potential brightspot
- And they went overtime. No questions answered. So it finished.
- The Lord Mayor literally said 2 things in her introduction about pedestrianising the city.

So disappointed. Everyone seems to be chasing theoretical unicorns while ignoring what's on hand. Regarding infrastructure, it's evident that this decade is a lost one with all money going towards N/S Motorway. Nothing wrong with cycling but if you are planning developments in Playford and Seaford for population growth, you cannot expect such people to cycle into the city. Public transit is key.

[SBD]

This week, we had a state budget that paid lip service to drip feeding some money towards a Greater Adelaide Bypass some time n the future.

We also had the announcement that JBS will be mothballing its Seven Point Pork abattoir near Port Wakefield at the end of the year. The root cause eventually identified that Coles will be moving its pork purchase contract from Seven Point Port to Big River Pork. The news so far has focused on the loss of 270 jobs and the largest employer in Wakefield Regional Council.

Let's assume the pigs will still be produced by the farms near Port Wakefield, and the Coles contract is going to require roughly the same amount of pork for the SA market that it does now. Instead of pigs making a short trip to a local abattoir, then truck loads of refrigerated meat coming down Port Wakefield Road to Coles' distribution centre at Edinburgh, we will have truck loads of live pigs going from Port Wakefield to Murray Bridge, then truck loads of pork from Murray Bridge to Edinburgh. How long until someone starts to complain about extra livestock trucks on Portrush Road and extra refrigerated trucks descending the SE Freeway?

The Greater Adelaide Bypass would presumably be ideal for this traffic once it's developed, but is it up to the job yet? Which country towns would pick up this traffic instead of the current highway network? Mallala, Truro, Cambrai, Sedan, Murray Bridge, for a route that Google says is 40 minutes longer by car. Which improvements are critical to make it the preferred route for safety and efficiency of both the truck drivers and everyone else?