Mind the Big Lobster, Mr Bean

Rowan Atkinson’s beloved brainchild Mr Bean has found himself a new role in South Australia.

The British sitcom character – who’s been effectively retired for the last 10 years (bar the odd Arabian telco ad or British Airways safety video) – is now a senior council bureaucrat on the Limestone Coast.

Well, at least that’s what BankSA seems to think.

It turns out that when the state’s largest bank decided it was time to tell residents in Kingston SE that it would be closing the town’s only bank branch, it got a bit confused as to who was leading Kingston District Council.

“We were notified by email, to our generic email address, in correspondence addressed to ‘Mr Bean’ that the local BankSA branch would close in May this year,” Nat Traeger, the council’s actual CEO, told a federal inquiry into regional bank closures.

“We certainly have no ‘Mr Bean’ working here.

“The fact that they couldn’t even get the salutation to such an important item of correspondence correct speaks volumes about the bank closure process.”

BankSA did not dispute Traeger’s account of events when contacted by The InSider, only confirming that the Kingston SE bank closure, announced last September, would not be going ahead.

The InSider notes BankSA’s improved communications effort the second time around – the email informing the council of the bank closure backflip was correctly addressed with a “Hello Nat”. Progress!

Who picks up the tab for privatisation?

Noodly business: Osteria Oggi has hosted some high-level government negotiations. Photo: Andre Castellucci/CityMag

Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis kept his cards close to his chest during the protracted negotiations with Keolis Downer to un-privatise Adelaide’s passenger trains.

The government’s talks with the private company, which reached a conclusion in April, were mostly kept behind closed doors as reporters’ questions were batted away with a “negotiations are going well” and little further detail.

It turns out that the Liberal Party’s parliamentary attempts to shed light on the issue yielded similarly opaque results.

Koutsantonis’ opposite number Vincent Tarzia filed a freedom of information request with the Minister’s office in December seeking:

• A copy of all documents (including but not limited to hard copy or electronic briefings, minutes, reports, emails, letters, meeting agendas, diary entries, event attendance records and any other correspondence) relating to a meeting held between the Chief Executive of Keolis-Downer international business and the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport between 1/12/2022 and 23/12/2022. 

Following an “extensive” search, the FOI officer on the job found one document: confirmation of a 6pm dinner at Pirie Street’s Osteria Oggi between Koutsantonis, Transport Department boss Jon Whelan and the late Keolis Downer International CEO Bernard Tabary.

The December 5 meetup at the chic Italian restaurant – not exactly the material for a bombshell Opposition press release – was apparently scheduled to run until 10pm.

The InSider (which personally recommends Oggi’s carbonara) wonders whether the final tab was as large as Koutsantonis’ last published trip to Oggi in January 2018 which incurred a bill of $207, according to credit card statements published by Treasury at the time.

Vale business and arts leader Jane Yuile

ANZ Chief Executive Officer Shayne Elliott led the tributes to Jane Yuile, the State Chair of ANZ, saying “she leaves an inimitable legacy as a strong supporter of the state and a trusted adviser”.

A memorial will be held on Monday, May 15 at the Art Gallery of South Australia to remember Jane Yuile, 66, a champion of many businesses, foundations and organisations in South Australia.

Yuile has led everything from the Flinders Medical Centre to being a current Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Central Adelaide Local Health Network and Adelaide Airport since arriving in Adelaide more than 20 years ago.

“I remember meeting Jane for the first time in 2010, when she was a candidate to be our first ANZ Chair for South Australia. Jane hadn’t worked in banking before but blew us away with her passion for the state, great spirit and obvious ability to collaborate and contribute to the team. We never looked back,” Elliot said.

“Jane was a wonderful friend and colleague who was much-loved by the team and will be sadly missed by us all. As one of the most highly-regarded finance leaders in South Australia, and after 13 years with ANZ, she leaves an inimitable legacy as a strong supporter of the state and a trusted adviser to our customers.

“Jane was also committed to helping the broader community through her board roles spanning the arts, environment, technology, utilities, healthcare and education.

“Our team is understandably devastated by the news and we are focused on supporting them, as well as Jane’s family, at this difficult time.”

Donations can be made to the Royal Flying Doctor Service in her memory.

Social media schooling

Amazing women like Jane Yuile not only leave a legacy after decades of leadership but also provide inspiration for South Australians working from Adelaide on national and international projects.

One such person is Caitlin Jinks, who did a stint as the social media lead for SAPOL and pretty much ended up running the COVID social media responses. She’s now the Social Media Lead at the Australia Federal Police and is kicking goals globally with her social media zeitgeist and Aussie wit.

Her recent post poking fun at the MET gala was not only hilarious but followed up by a schooling of the haters in how to properly do socials… follow the comments.

Responding to a WTF comment about the police should have better things to do than comment on the MET, Jinks explained that the account is run by social media managers, not police… since detectives don’t “sit on Facebook in between fighting crime, that’s not how it works”.

“We’re social media specialists and a big part of our job is to get people (including you) to interact with our posts. That’s how social media algorithms work…”

She then explained to the concerned citizen that they publish plenty of serious posts about crime, such as a recent drug bust, and that she didn’t “see you in the comments for that one”.

Caitlin runs all this from her hometown of Adelaide, a city, she tells The InSider, she moved back to in 2019 because she was so drawn to it.

“My Sydney friends thought I was making a mistake but I love it here,” she said.

‘End of life’ Christmas tree set for one last go

The council-owned Christmas Tree in Victoria Square is in desperate need of repair. Photo: City of Adelaide

Is it too early to be thinking about Christmas?

Not if you’re the Adelaide City Council, which earlier this month debated its $430,000 budget for this year’s “Christmas Festival” in the city.

The pot of money (worth approximately three North Adelaide benches) will be spent on Christmas decorations across the city that will “complement existing Christmas Festival assets”, according to the council administration.

But Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith found one glaring omission.

“I can’t see where the cost of the new Christmas tree is,” she told a council committee last week. “I thought we had to invest in one?”

A council bureaucrat replied that repairing the 25-metre-tall tree in Victoria Square was not part of the decorations budget – but conceded the 13,616 LED lights on the tree were “absolutely at the end of life”.

The Lord Mayor could not hide her concern.

“I’m sorry, last year I was told that it was at the end of life and it had to be replaced before next Christmas,” she said.

“And the budget’s going to be set in the next couple of weeks so it would be wise to have in the budget I would have thought?”

The bureaucrat then revealed that the tree replacement has been pushed back until 2024 but the council’s asset management team “have assured us that the lighting system is fine for this year”.

The full upgrade of the tree is not scheduled to be completed until 2025.

You say tomato, I say tomato

A strict embargo has lifted on the news that Adelaide-based LED sports lighting and digital display company VALO will now be spelled … VAILO.

It’s all part of the company’s expansion internationally. Seems the Americans couldn’t figure out how to pronounce the company’s name, which is (was) based on the Finnish word for “light” (or “wall” if you are Portuguese).

The spelling change comes after a determined pronunciation campaign before and during last year’s Adelaide 500, of which VA(I)LO was the naming rights sponsor.

 

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A post shared by VALO (@valo_au)

But all kidding aside, it’s great to see a proud South Aussie doing so well in the United States where VAILO is “finalising a property acquisition for a new office and manufacturing facility for Northern American-specific LED lighting and digital displays”.

The Pub Test

Picture: Tony Lewis/InDaily

Space was in the news this week with the 15^th Australian Space Forum taking place on Tuesday, just before the space spending cuts were announced in the Federal Budget. The InSider hit the Austral and the Stag to determine if South Australia’s space industry is universally known or simply a black hole.

Bella, a 20-year-old café worker looked at The InSider as if we were out of this world when asked if she knew Adelaide was the home of the Australian Space Agency or if she could name a South Australian space company.

“I knew nothing at all about South Australia being the hub for Australian space activities,” she said.

“Off the top of my head, I can’t name any companies at all.”

Christian, a digital artist enjoying a creative pint, was equally perplexed but got the locations right. “Oh look… I thought that the space Centre would be based in Canberra or something,” the 24-year-old said.

“The only thing I know about the South Australia space program is that there’s something on North Terrace?

“Try and name a South Australian space company ya reckon?? I wouldn’t know where to even start… I have never really thought about that.”

Combine FIFO worker Darren’s star-studded knowledge and you almost get half an answer.

“Yes, I did know that South Australia’s space program was based out of Australia… I’m pretty smart like that,” the 50—year-old said. “I for sure could not name a company within that industry though.”

As an upstanding corporate citizen The Insider feels obliged to share how according to the SA Government, these three could “Find their place in space”

Stuff you should know…

You might have missed it but the past week was International Compost Awareness Week. And that’s not a load of crap.

If we all just composted our scraps, our landfills wouldn’t be pumping out methane and that would reduce global greenhouse gas emissions – of which food waste is a major contributor.

Luckily the Adelaide CBD has a dedicated service to pick up restaurant compost, as well as the leftovers from your office, in the team at EcoCaddy.

Called EcoOrganics and run by InDaily 40 Under 40 alumnus Daniels Langeberg, this pedal-powered start-up will come and pick up your coffee grounds and other organics and take them to their compost maker at the south end of Pulteney St.

You can learn more on this video.

There will be plenty of more cool companies run by young leaders announced at the 40 Under 40 Awards on 8 June at the Adelaide Oval. Grab your tickets now.