Off the Record: Premier Steven Marshall’s chief executive Nick Reade empties the Adelaide CBD
In Off the Record this week, we reveal who made the decision to empty the CBD, security concerns about the Premier, and a city infrastructure boss quits.
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In Off the Record this week, how Steven Marshall’s main man has emptied the Adelaide CBD, security concerns about the Premier’s press conferences and city infrastructure boss departs.
EMPTYING OUT
The first two weeks of January usually marks the return of white-collar workers to their airconditioned offices in the city.
But the streets of Adelaide’s CBD will likely be deserted for quite some time after the Premier’s department encouraged all public sector employees to work from home until February.
Off the Record was told department head Nick Reade endorsed the reintroduction of remote working via email on Christmas Eve, encouraging all staff to “work from home wherever possible”.
Off the Record has also been told only a few of Premier Steven Marshall’s closest advisers and staff remain in the office – arrangements mirrored across most ministerial offices.
Though it does align with Mr Marshall’s advice to the wider public to work from home for the next month, it’s a decision that has no doubt further infuriated all the CBD shops that rely on the bustling foot traffic of city office workers.
These are the same businesses that were hit with new restrictions on December 28 – the effects of which were compounded by chief public health bureaucrat Professor Nicola Spurrier’s plea to South Australians to make December 31 the “quietest New Year’s Eve they’ve ever had”.
Certainly not the start to 2022 the owners of small shops, cafes, restaurants and bars were hoping for.
MAKING MOVES
Getting ready to permanently depart his office on Pirie St is Adelaide City Council infrastructure director Klinton Devenish.
Devenish’s resignation from his $273,000-a-year position was announced by Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor at the council’s last meeting for 2021.
He joined the council in 2014 after working at various private sector firms, including Downer, Built Environs, Fulton Hogan and Sinclair, Knight, Merz.
Paying tribute to his work at the council, Verschoor recounted how Devenish had been involved in major projects such as the huge wetlands being built in Victoria Park and upgrades of Moonta St and Gawler Place, including installing the city’s giant steel pigeon.
There was no mention of the Quentin Kenihan Playspace, where the council recently has spent a large amount of money fixing up multiple spots which could have posed dangers to disabled children and installing access paths suitable for wheelchairs.
CALM BEFORE THE STORM
Already gone from his Waymouth St office is long-term State Emergency Service media manager Jon Carr.
A familiar voice over the decades to legions of reporters seeking information about floods, searches for missing people, fallen branches and cats stuck up trees, Carr was not such a familiar face.
Most reporters quizzed by the Off the Record said they had never met Carr and had no know idea what he looked like.
Efforts this week to find a photograph of the former newspaper journalist were unsuccessful, with his Facebook profile even featuring the ubiquitous egg.
Emails to Carr requesting a headshot came back with the automatic reply: “I no longer work for the SA State Emergency Service”.
“If you are a member of the media and need information about an emergency (flood or storm) or a rescue attended by the SA State Emergency Service (SES) please call our media line.”
Jon, as you slip into retirement with your anonymity intact, thank you from Off the Record for all the comprehensive updates when our state was in danger.
You were always a calm voice before, during and after the storms.
GREAT OUTDOORS
While on media briefings, Covid-19 press conferences have become an important event in recent weeks as South Australians wait with bated breath for the latest case numbers.
But, with two security breaches in a week, government officials are asking questions how an Elizabeth Grove man knew when and where the Premier would be speaking.
For almost two years, most major briefings have been held in a purpose-built media room at the State Administration Centre.
Premier Steven Marshall, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens, chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier and Health Minister Stephen Wade have regularly fronted the cameras.
With the rise of Omicron, Professor Spurrier apparently vetoed use of the room because it was too small and said briefings needed to be held outdoors.
As a result, press conferences moved to the footpath outside the State Administration Centre, which houses Marshall’s office and the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
The Premier has been fronting the media by himself since Boxing Day at various locations.
Absent has been Stevens, who has been isolating since Tuesday because of contracting Covid, while Spurrier has been busy managing the Omicron situation.
After a drunk female heckler hijacked a briefing in the south parklands on New Year’s Eve, Marshall’s briefings were moved to an atrium outside Botanic High School on Frome Rd.
The location became the centre of media attention on Wednesday when a man who tried to disrupt the event was tackled by a plain clothes police protection officer.
The incident prompted concerns details of the location had been leaked.
Marshall’s next briefing on Thursday was in the more secure courtyard at Old Parliament House.
Spurrier joined Marshall on Friday for the first time in 12 days at the Mile End netball stadium.
WHOOPSY DAISY
Former director of public prosecutions Stephen Pallaras is in full flight, campaigning as an independent candidate for the Legislative Council at the state election in March.
A regular letter writer and contributor to talkback radio, Pallaras is issuing media releases and holding press conferences on a range of topics.
His subject this week was the state lockout laws, where people cannot enter licensed premises on Hindley St after 3am.
In his media statement, Pallaras said his Real Change for SA team questioned why SA still had lockout laws, arguing they had not worked in other capital cities such as Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
“Now, the original rationale that was cited for the introduction for this law by the Weatherill government was that it would introduce alcohol related crime,” he said.
Off the Record thinks Pallaras might have meant the laws “would reduce alcohol related crime”.
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