Matthew Abraham: Questioning the value for money of Lot Fourteen isn’t having a swipe at anyone’s hard work. It’s called accountability.

Questioning taxpayer value for money is as worthy on Lot 14 as it is at Australia Post, writes Matthew Abraham.

Premier Steven Marshall at Lot 14. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

Poke a sacred cow with a pointy stick and it’ll run mooing all the way to the bank. But not before giving you a kick in the bum.

Over the years, I’ve happily worn a few bruises after annoying the odd sacred cow – those pet government projects or favoured individuals generously funded by the taxpayer.

Because they enjoy the adoring backing of government, any public questioning of their funding, spending, credentials and any factual, tangible benefits for the taxpayers is too often seen as either a nuisance or an outrageous slur.

Remember the public bromance between cycling drug cheat Lance Armstrong and his buddy, former Labor Premier Mike Rann, or “Mikey” as Lance called him?

Any journalist who dared to question that taxpayer-funded frolic for the Tour Down Under was dispatched to the boggy end of the far paddock.

From the State Bank, to the Adelaide Grand Prix to Friday’s overdue but smart decision to drop the Superloop Adelaide 500 car race, they were all tickety-boo – until they weren’t.

So, and this is not a comprehensive list, I’ve found myself:

IN hot water for questioning the use of free BMWs for senior public servants involved in the first Adelaide Grand Prix;

NEARLY tarred and feathered at a Property Council luncheon for criticising the free land gifted to developers for the Glenelg apartment block that has forever ruined the view to the sea down Anzac Highway;

FROZEN out for asking reasonable questions about the TDU; and,

BANNED for questions I didn’t even ask about why former treasurer Kevin Foley’s then-partner was in a Budget media lock-up.

Sadly, none of this makes me a journalistic genius. Maybe I just like picking fights.

But it is driven by this pig-headed rule: Taxpayers work hard for their money and if a government gives it in large amounts to private business or individuals, they deserve to know why, when, how much and what’s in it for the taxpayer.

The sidelining of Australia Post boss Christine Holgate over the $20,000 gift of four Cartier watches to senior executives has surprised some observers. Really? Few people own a Cartier watch but everyone has a letterbox.

The largesse surfaced in parliament the same day we got a postcard in our letterbox from Australia Post crying poor, informing us our letter deliveries were being cut back to every second day. Writing in these pages two weeks ago about the West End Brewery closure, I poked a twig at the Marshall Government’s own sacred cow, Lot Fourteen.

South Australia’s chief entrepreneur Jim Whalley. .

While the government didn’t lift a finger to save West End, I wrote it poured “boundless enthusiasm and corporate hand-outs by the bucketload” into the project on the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site. This is true.

I wrote that the language surrounding Lot Fourteen is “impenetrable PR wah-wah” that makes it sound as relevant to our daily lives as Area 51, said to be the US home of crashed UFOs and alien abductions. This is also true.

South Australia’s chief entrepreneur, Jim Whalley, kicked back with a cranky opinion piece in The Advertiser defending Lot Fourteen. No problems with that.

“Claiming it’s about ‘corporate handouts’ is also a lot of rubbish and takes a swipe at the many start-ups and people who have put houses, careers, relationships and reputations on the line to create jobs and businesses,” he wrote.

Well, that’s also a lot of rubbish. The Department of Premier and Cabinet website spruiking Lot Fourteen says it is funded under the 10-year Adelaide City Deal signed last year between the Australian and SA governments and the Adelaide City Council.

“Lot Fourteen is the centrepiece, delivering $672m in joint investment, with $527m from the SA Government,” it boasts. Strewth, $672m sounds like a big bucketload, doesn’t it?

Questioning the value for money of Lot Fourteen isn’t having a swipe at anyone’s hard work.

It’s terrific to read in today’s paper about people returning to Adelaide from San Francisco to base their tech start-up at Lot Fourteen. Welcome home – live long and prosper.

Mr Whalley rolled out the tired old “joke” that the only people who whinge about SA “are those who’ve never left and those who’ve never been”. Oh, please.

The people who’ve never left are the same people kicking cash into our sacred cows and their bottomless buckets of cream.