Tory Shepherd: Hi-tech hub plan for old RAH site need substance

SOUTH Australia has dreams of being a futuristic hub, but it also has memories of the Multifunction Polis.

Adelaide University vice chancellor Peter Rathjen.

• Push for ‘our Silicon Valley’ at old RAH site
• Big plans for Adelaide that never happened

SOUTH Australia has dreams of being a futuristic hub, but it also has memories of the Multifunction Polis.

All levels of government and opposition — with the exception of the occasional troglodyte — knows that our state’s opportunity lies with hi-tech innovation.

We have seen the ups and downs of being a first mover on renewables, we have embraced our new biomedical precinct despite issues at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, and we have hosted the world’s biggest astronaut conference. And we have held our own. More or less.

The next challenge is how we harness the defence billions headed our way.

Big players in the industry will be scrambling for their bit, competition will be rife and smaller businesses will hunt for scraps.

Politicians will clamber over each other to claim glory.

In this heady environment, SA needs to set itself up as a calm oasis, a place to settle.

That means showing global giants and individual geniuses that this is the perfect place to set up camp.

If we can create that environment — the “vibrant ecosystem” that a City Deal should deliver — then we will be set up for decades.

But City Deals are, for now, just the promise of a brave new world.

Many of the announcements lack serious meat — they are, at this stage, mostly Memorandae of Understanding.

They run the risk of becoming a mere branding exercise, where any money spent or reform achieved simply gets the City Deal treatment. Politicking could well win out.

Already there is some bickering interstate over who should be kicking in what money, when the core premise of the deal is proper collaboration.

Already there are signs that the City Deal umbrella will be used to re-announce funds already committed.

It could become a thin veneer under which the same old inefficiencies and competitions for resources bumble along.

In the 80s the MFP was seen as the city of the future, a hi-tech hub.

Aerial view of Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

It was undone by political mishandling and public mistrust. Our historical shot at creating an oasis to lure in the best and brightest turned out to be a shimmering mirage.

So if a City Deal is to work and to realise the rather heady aspirations of new University of Adelaide Vice Chancellor Peter Rathjen that the old RAH site could be transformed into an SA version of Silicon Valley, then it simply must have new funding commitments attached. This was the model for Townsville, where a new $250 million stadium formed the centrepiece of its deal. In this environment of big defence spending, it also presents us with an opportunity to discuss the type of city we aspire to be.

Today The Advertiser launches our Future Adelaide series, which will look to showcase the ideas, concepts and plans which will drive our state and city forward.

Any Future Adelaide ideas contact us as [e-mail]