Why does such a small group get such a loud voice? | David Penberthy

In my 30-plus years observing politics I cannot recall a dumber comment than the one made by Rex Patrick this week, writes David Penberthy.

It was a very Adelaide moment which provided an apt ending to a very Adelaide event, the rock concert last Saturday night to celebrate the induction of the legendary Adelaide Unibar into the South Australian Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

At precisely 11.59pm, local rockers The Mark of Cain were finishing a typically excellent and ear-piercing set when frontman John Scott said to the crowd: “I think we’ve got time for a couple more!”

He then checked himself and said: “Sorry, hard curfew. Show’s over.” We all went “aww” and skulked off into the night.

Adelaide might be painted by the ignorant eastern states types as dullsville, but the truth is that only a certain percentage of us are dull.

For much of its modern life – by which I mean the AD years, standing for After Don – Adelaide has been quietly at war with itself, with its wowserish Methodist/Lutheran past and sandstone-housed Old Money crashing into people who enjoy and endorse weird arts festivals, loud rock bands, nude bathing, the 12-plant rule for the enthusiastic pothead, al fresco dining, and are perfectly unfazed by a married premier swanning about in hot pink shorts, befitting a more innocent and less intrusive era when folks could look at a band like the Village People and see only five guys who enjoyed dressing up.

This longstanding Adelaide cultural war manifested itself in the Cloisters at 11.59pm last Saturday, when those who want The Mark of Cain to turn it up lost their battle with those who want The Mark of Cain to shut up. It was another little win for the people who live in North Adelaide and peer through their lace curtains worrying that someone, somewhere, is having a good time, and have their priggishness enshrined in a council bylaw.

It is wrong to say that the entire population of Adelaide is completely divided into these two camps. There are actually three camps. We have a significant number of people who passionately want things to happen, a significant number of people who passionately don’t want things to happen, and a vast majority of people in the middle who really don’t care what happens and aren’t upset about anything.

Which brings us to the local government elections, that are mercifully coming to a close this weekend.

Lord Mayoral candidate Rex Patrick. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

In the local government space, it has become increasingly clear that the small percentage of South Australians who passionately don’t want things to happen are spectacularly and massively over-serviced.

Like many voters, or non-voters, I am not sure who I should vote for in my area as every single person who is running seems to be from some kind of nay-saying action group or is an individual motivated by a burning desire to stop things. Stopping things that most us like, such as cars, houses, new shops or new hospitals.

Hospitals. What about those damned things, taking up all that room, making sick people well again.

Which brings us to lord mayoral candidate Rex Patrick.

In my 30-plus years observing politics for my beloved newspaper, I cannot recall a dumber comment by anyone than the one made by Patrick this week about the parklands.

The former senator is running on two platforms.

The first is to tackle the apparent crisis of transparency at the Adelaide City Council. In passing I would note that one of the key problems with the council across the past four years is that we have all become painfully and intimately familiar with its inner workings.

We know too much about what is going on there.

The second is his unyielding outrage at what he regards as the desecration of the parklands by the Malinauskas government, as evidenced through its proposed construction of the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital at the police barracks and its expansion of Botanic High.

In a comment which suggested an extraordinary loss of perspective, Patrick this week labelled Premier Malinauskas as the “Parklands Putin” of SA, ruthlessly annexing green space to meet his construction needs.

Murderous dictator Vladimir Putin. Picture: AFP

Non-murderous premier Peter Malinauskas. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

The distinctions between the two men should probably be spelt out for Mr Patrick.

One is a democratically elected bloke who just won in a landslide and remains accountable to the parliament and the people.

The other is a despot who has his opponents poisoned and who runs a country on tyranny and fear.

One is apologetically using a heritage site to build a vital hospital on the basis of uniform clinical advice, while the other is busy overseeing the murder of civilians and threatening to use nuclear weapons in an illegal war.

So just a couple of differences there.

Aside from being both offensive and stupid, Patrick’s attack on Malinauskas comes with the added bonus of also being wrong.

His claim about the theft of land for Botanic High is not true at all. The government has taken some parklands neighbouring the school to enable its extension but replaced that with a matching allotment of new land to be designated as parkland, meaning there is no net loss whatsoever.

But the key question here is one of perspective.

How bizarre to live in a town where people like Patrick, and those who have voted for him, have such blind affection for green space that they can’t countenance its limited and defensible use for the education and medical care of children, and will compare the Premier to a murderous dictator for doing so.

If Rex gets up, hopefully there can be some kind of concert in his honour. Maybe The Mark of Cain could play, their Marshall stacks turned up to 11, aimed straight at the Town Hall as they thunder through every song on Battlesick.