Tom Koutsantonis loses his main man – plus, pillars of wisdom, towers of priorities and mounds of the common man’s childhood.

Mound doesn’t amount to a hill of beans

Our media colleague David Penberthy, radio jock and occasional News Ltd columnist, teed off this morning about the Stadium Management Authority’s use of the term “Northern Mound” to describe the grassy bit in front of Adelaide Oval’s scoreboard.

Penbo, apparently, calls the area The Hill.

“Everyone in South Australia knows where and what The Hill is except for the SMA”, Penbo wrote today.

The Outsider can’t question Penbo’s Adelaide cred – he’s always keen to remind his listeners that he grew up in Mitchell Park; but we wonder if his memory has been clouded by a long stint in Sydney where he worked at the Daily Telegraph.

Sydneysiders had an affection for The Hill at the Sydney Cricket Ground until it was swallowed up by a new grandstand.

We checked with one of our colleagues at InDaily, who also spent his childhood and youth in Mitchell Park, even playing footy for the mighty Lions based at Bradley Grove.

“Adelaide Oval in the 60s, 70s and 80s had two renowned grassed areas,” our office sports fanatic tells us.

“The Southern Mound was alongside the Creswell Stand and the Northern Mound was the area in front of the scoreboard.

“Demographically, the Northern Mound was home to country people in town for a match and those from the northern side of town, while the Southern Mound was full of people who’d got off the trains from Hallett Cove, Brighton and Bridgewater. I’ve never heard either called The Hill.”

Is The Hill a new term? Or has Penbo imported a Sydney saying into Adelaide memories?

Over to you, Oval fans.

Kouts loses his right-hand man

Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis is looking for a new chief of staff after his Right-hand man Rob Malinauskas accepted a job as corporate communications boss with oil and gas giant Santos.

Malinauskas, still a few years shy of 30, has been with Kouts for about four years and The Outsider understands he was vigorously pursued by Santos.

It’s a win-win, with Malinauskas escaping the tumult of politics to the lucrative world of big business, while Santos gets a link into the heart of Labor’s powerful Right faction.

As well as Malinauskas’s obvious links with the senior money and mining man in the State Government, his older brother Peter is the head of the Shoppies union – the most powerful Right faction aligned union in South Australia.

Mali the younger starts with Santos in September.

Top of the flops

Can you remember five of the 10 points in Jay Weatherill’s “Shaping the Future of SA” speech this week?

If you can’t quite get past one, we’ve repeated them below (lucky you).

Perhaps an easier question might be ‘can you list any of the Seven Pillars of State Development (February 2012)’, the numeric predecessor of government strategy.

Here’s a clue: many of the Seven get a run in the Ten.

We’ve repeated those as well (even luckier you).

In fact, we’ve lined them up to see what’s “shot up the chart” from the halcyon days of the Seven Pillars (SP) to the the more sombre days of the Ten Priorities (TP).

At number one in the SP was “creating a vibrant city” – it’s tumbled to number eight, rebadged as “Adelaide, the heart of the vibrant state”.

“Premium food and wine from our clean environment” was number seven on the old charts and its shot up to number two on the TP.

The big winner in the two years since the Pillars were launched is “unlocking the full potential of South Australia’s resources”; it came in at number six on the old list but has shot to number one on the Ten Priorities.

Pity the new list was drawn up in the days before Rex Minerals put a hold on their copper project and OzMinerals advised the share market there was just 10 years left in the Prominent Hill mine.

A biblical view

The techniques of five, seven, and ten pillared (or is that pilloried) structures in building one’s future perhaps owe their origins to a biblical notion.

Bible scholars tell us that a life of genuine wisdom is founded on seven pillars.

“Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars.”  the Bible says at Proverbs 9:1

Just what these seven pillars are is listed in the New Testament (James 3:13);”But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”

The bible scholars interpret that to mean that a life of genuine wisdom is a life founded upon wisdom supported by genuine purity, peaceableness, gentleness, reasonableness, helpfulness, humility, and sincerity.

If any of those concepts come to mind the next time you walk past State Parliament on North Terrace, let me know.

And if you were wondering, the pallatial grey building the house our MP’s debating chambers is fronted by 20 pillars.

Ten Economic Priorities 2014

1: Unlocking the full potential of South Australia’s
resources, energy and renewable assets
2: Premium food and wine produced in our clean
environment and exported to the world
3: A globally recognised leader in health research,
ageing and related services and products
4: The Knowledge State – attracting a diverse student
body and commercialising our research
5: South Australia – a growing destination choice for
international and domestic travellers
6: Growth through innovation
7: South Australia – the best place to do business
8: Adelaide, the heart of the vibrant state
9: Promoting South Australia’s international
connections and engagement.
10: South Australia’s small businesses have access
to capital and global markets

Seven Strategic Priorities 2012

1. Creating a vibrant city.
2. Safe communities, healthy neighbourhoods.
3. An affordable place to live
4. Every chance for every child
5. Growing advanced manufacturing
6. Realising the benefits of the mining boom for all
7. Premium food and wine from our clean environment