Daniel Wills: Port Augusta residents don’t need political spin; they need the problem fixed

PORT Augusta residents are worried their health and that of their children is at risk from an ash cloud swirling from a defunct power station. They just want it fixed, and the minister’s response is jaw-dropping.

PORT Augusta residents are worried their health and their children’s is at risk from an ash cloud swirling around a defunct power station.
They just want someone from the government to help them make it go away, but the minister’s jaw-dropping response is to play politics.

Sustainability, Environment and Conservation Minister Ian Hunter seems a slow learner.

After dressing downs for his dismissive attitude over groundwater contamination at Clovelly Park and toward people flooded by burst water mains, plus formal complaints about his abusive and rude behaviour in meetings, you’d expect some introspection and a new outlook.

Instead, the minister on Tuesday released an official statement, as Port Augusta residents are having to wipe ash dust from their kitchen tables and worry about asthma and other health dangers, to go the hack on his political rivals about the ETSA privatisation that happened almost 20 years ago.

In one short sentence, he may have articulated everything that’s wrong with modern politics.

Mr Hunter’s statement today opens with the political debating line: “The problem of ash blowing over Port Augusta and causing distress to local residents is one of the legacies left to South Australians by the Liberal Party privatisation of the state’s electricity assets.”

The people of Port Augusta want a practical solution to a real problem.
Many may not even be able to name their state electorate. Fewer care who caused the cloud.
All want a fast solution.

They want to know facts from their elected officials about whether they are in real danger and information that will help them make decisions about what to do in their own lives.

After some more treacle about the fact that the Government does not own the site, but is in charge of its regulation, readers are finally assured there will be a report “as soon as possible”.

Across the world, voters are in revolt against a ruling class they believe cares more about holding power than using it to drive positive outcomes that improve average lives.

A plume of ash surrounds the Northern Power Station at Port Augusta. Picture: Matt Turner

They view the back-and-forth political arguments between highly paid ministers and officials with increasing contempt as their daily battle to find a job or pay bills feels tougher.

There is an academic argument to be had around dinner party tables about the merits or otherwise of selling ETSA.
It could be rolled into a university essay about the cause of the State Bank collapse and put out in limited release through a boutique publishing house.

Historians can hold panel discussions at writers’ festivals and imagine alternative futures.

But for now, in Port Augusta, a mysterious and threatening fog greets all visitors with a pong in the nose and grit on their faces.
The local mayor believes it has hospitalised children.

The new engagement paradigm seems the same as the old, and couldn’t be more out of touch.