Downer unloads on ‘squeaky wheelers’ in fight for Adelaide’s future

The former foreign minister has unloaded on the culture of negativity in his hometown, saying progress is being held back.

Potential lord mayoral candidate Alexander Downer. Picture: Roy Van Der Vegt

Former foreign minister Alexander Downer has unloaded on the culture of negativity in his hometown, saying progress in Adelaide is being held back by “squeaky wheelers” who are driving young people away by “turning the city into a museum”.

Mr Downer has revealed he may run for lord mayor when he returns to Adelaide to take on the heritage lobby and parkland protectionists, who he says are killing investment.

The lifelong Liberal is also backing the Malinauskas Labor government in two key planning battles: the proposed construction of the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital at the site of the heritage-listed Police Barracks; and the new Adelaide Football Club headquarters in the city’s inner west.

The two projects have a combined value of about $4bn but are being targeted by anti-development councillors, Greens activists and the heritage lobby as an attack on green space and the city’s historic architecture.

Now London-based as executive chairman of the International School for Government at King’s College, Mr Downer said for too long Adelaide had been held captive by a “narrow-minded, change-averse” minority.

He said his own side of politics had been the worst offenders at pandering to their demands, citing the former Marshall government’s axing of the V8 Supercars race amid noise and traffic complaints as “unforgivable”.

“I have become very unsympathetic to politicians in SA who keep blocking projects because of these squeaky wheelers,” Mr Downer told The Weekend Australian. “These are people who have all the money in the world and live in lovely houses and good luck to them, I am all in favour of people having a happy and prosperous life. But there is no need to deny it to other people. They are a particular demographic and I am sorry to say they have been listened to more by the Liberal Party than the Labor Party over the years.”

Mr Downer played an influential role in shifting opinion ahead of the 2013 Adelaide Oval redevelopment, when even the retention of the historic scoreboard and Moreton Bay figs was not enough to satisfy the heritage purists who complained about the loss of views of the Adelaide Hills through the construction of the new eastern stand.

Working with pro-development SACA president and former defence minister Ian McLachlan, Mr Downer arranged for the former prime minister John Howard to write to every SACA member urging them to vote yes to the upgrade.

“It’s one of the few things I have done in life that I am proud of,” Mr Downer joked.

“The new Adelaide Oval is absolutely fantastic compared to the Great Depression-era stands that were there before. It is a modern icon right in the middle of Adelaide. To think of all those who campaigned against it is unbelievable. They weren’t the ­majority, they were the minority, but we keep caving in to them.”

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas. Picture: Matt Loxton

Mr Downer urged Premier Peter Malinauskas to hold his nerve and use the win on the Oval upgrade as a model for the new WCH and Adelaide Crows HQ.

“This is a test for Malinauskas,” he said. “He has got to plough ahead. He will have strong support from the community if he just pushes ahead. He doesn’t need to be rude about it, he can be as nice as pie while just not accepting what they are demanding.

“The political culture of SA is one of consolation which, prima facie, sounds like a reasonable thing, but in reality it often means giving veto power to anyone who objects. With this approach you will never get anything done.

“There is a hardened core of people in Adelaide who are against any sort of development at all. You just have to be polite to them and say: “That’s all very interesting but we are terribly sorry, life has to move on.”

Mr Downer said he was convinced there was mainstream support for development in SA but that organisations such as the City Council only represented narrow interests. He confirmed he had been approached to run for lord mayor and said he still entertained the idea of doing so.

“Yes, people were trying to get me to run,” he said. “Maybe I should do it another time. Something has to change.

“All of this has a massive effect on driving young people away because it creates a huge disincentive to invest. If there is no investment, there aren’t enough jobs. There are jobs in Adelaide, but are there enough interesting jobs? It feeds into the brain drain because it is so difficult to get ­approval for anything.”

The timing of the new hospital and Crows headquarters has been made more problematic for the Malinauskas government because both projects overlap with council elections.

Every lord mayoral candidate is opposed to locating the WCH at the Police Barracks, despite every key clinician group saying there is no other site where it can be placed without compromising patient care.

Committee for Adelaide chief executive Bruce Djite. Picture: Roy Van Der Vegt

Retired radio broadcaster and heritage campaigner Keith Conlon has labelled the proposed hospital a “tragedy” and vowed to “lie down in the front of the bulldozers” to stop the destruction of 12 heritage-listed buildings and a grove of olive trees.

At the parliamentary level, the campaign is being led by the Greens, whose heritage spokesman Robert Simms has warned about the precedent it sets by overriding heritage laws.

“We are not against the hospital,” Mr Simms said. “We are against the fact the government is setting this up as a false binary choice between a new hospital versus heritage and parklands.”

But Mr Downer’s criticisms were cheered by the pro-development Committee for Adelaide which under new CEO Bruce Djite has become vocal in challenging opponents of change.

“Adelaide has suffered for decades from a can’t-do mindset,” Mr Djite said.