Matthew Abraham: South Australia politics without spin? It was a nice while it lasted

It was, of course, a crazy idea — the concept a new government could resist the temptation of employing an army of spin doctors was never going to fly. But in the spirit of Fringe season, the Marshall Government is now hosting its own festival of spin.

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It was, of course, a crazy idea.

The concept that a new government could resist the temptation of employing an army of spin doctors was never going to fly.

In May last year, in these pages, I praised new Liberal Treasurer Rob Lucas for having been in office for one whole month without employing a spin doctor – or “media adviser”, to give them their misleading title.

What a refreshing change from the Big Spin that polluted the 16 years of Rann and Weatherill Labor governments.

“If a government did try operating for a year with no spin, it might not be more honest but it would leave us room to think for ourselves,” I concluded.

As the Marshall Government meanders into Year Two, it has jettisoned any notions of departing from Labor’s festival of spin.

Instead, dedicated followers of spin are being spoiled rotten in our very own garden of unearthly delights, where rather than strippers – sorry, burlesque artists – all the thrills are media releases and sound bites.

The critics were ecstatic at the government’s bravura performance on Tuesday, pulling from its hat an extra $18 million for Adelaide High School. Fantastic, yes?

But as you read down the media release, the true story emerged.

Valdman Cartoon. Adelaide beaches are eroding again while property values are being hurt by redrawn school catchment areas in the Inner West

The Government is dramatically shrinking the intake boundaries for Adelaide High, garrotting nine suburbs, some within walking distance of the classrooms.

This was a seismic and totally unexpected shift and the shell-shocked families deserved better than media releases cynically sugar-coating their bad news.

This is the essence of the deceit of spin – attempting to “spin” a positive message from a big, stinking negative.

Maybe the Government does need professionals to help share the secret of their agenda for the state in 2019, because most of us haven’t a clue.

Premier Steven Marshall seems chuffed about South Australia’s future as a “world innovator in blockchain technology”.

His media release during the week announced the blockchain nerd finalists competing to share a $100,000 prize at our “Global Blockchain Summit” next month.

Say what?

Blockchain is a “value-exchange protocol” or a decentralised, distributed and public digital ledger used to record transactions across many computers so that any involved record cannot be altered retroactively, without the alteration of all subsequent blocks.

Rather than sending his whole state on a Wikipedia search for his blockchain vision, maybe the Premier could have a go at fleshing it out for us.

That’d be a productive exercise for government media advisers, instead of having them nit-pick or try to manipulate media opinions to suit their agenda.

A few weeks back, I received an email from one of Health Minister Stephen Wade’s advisers after my new Thursday brekky gig with FIVEaa’s David Penberthy and Will Goodings.

We’d been shooting the breeze on SA Health’s $470 million basket case – the electronic health record system, EPAS.

“I understand you wanted to make it light-hearted and all a big joke but there were some really important, fundamental facts that were missed or misrepresented which I found surprising,” they wrote.

They then worked their way through the full printed transcript of the session, line by line, highlighting their comments in red text.

It was hilarious. It took me right back to the sad, bad old days of Mike Rann’s spin enforcers.

Well, here’s a few more fundamental, surprising facts.

I didn’t read beyond the first lot of red print. I’m not interested in what a spin doctor thinks of my opinions.

The EPAS blow-out isn’t a joke, it’s a disgrace. And if the Minister wants to discuss the mess, he’s got my number.

In a possibly unrelated development, last week’s Sunday Mail revealed SA Health will spend almost $460,000 more on communications staff this year than under the former Labor Government.

And, boy, did Labor love embedding “communications staff” in every nook and cranny of the public service.

A Small Spin government? What was I thinking?

Or, to paraphrase the greatest speech ever delivered at the MCG, by coach Mark Williams after the Power’s glorious 2004 grand final win against Brisbane, “Matthew Abraham, you were wrong!”

If I had a Power tie, I’d pretend to be choking myself with it right now.

Take that, Matt Abraham!