The power of the press
It was one of the most fascinating Adelaide events of the year: a panel involving former Manus Island detainee and journalist Behrouz Boochani, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and novelist Geraldine Brooks, and academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who was imprisoned in Iran for more than two years on bogus espionage charges.
The moderator was journalist Peter Greste, meaning everyone involved had been imprisoned at some stage.
The event, held earlier this month and titled Reading and Writing Dangerously, was hosted by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre at the University of South Australia and The J.M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice at The University of Adelaide.
You can watch the entire discussion below, but what struck InSider most was the panel’s reflections on journalism. Boochani, for example, talked about his struggle to convince the Australian media to treat him as a journalist during his time as a prisoner of Australia’s offshore detention regime for asylum-seekers.
Greste asked whether journalism, itself, was a dangerous practice.
Brooks, a decorated foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal briefly imprisoned while on assignment in Nigeria, responded with one word.
“Murdoch,” she said.
Her brief explanation was Hemingwayesque in its economy.
“I think he has done more damage to the environment and to the wretched of the Earth than any other human being on the planet.”
Country journalists say the quiet part out loud
The reality of media and political power in South Australia has been given an airing by some of the state’s best regional journalists.
The second report on Australian regional news media, by the Centre for Media Transition at UTS, was released this week. Its aim is to examine “how the challenges experienced by regional media are impacting the amount of rural and regional news received by all Australians”, particularly those in metropolitan markets.
Part of the research involved talking to journalists themselves – and a group of regional South Australian editors revealed how shoddily they can be treated by Adelaide-centric politicians.
“Almost every editor we spoke to argued emphatically that South Australian governments have been less than fully invested in promoting and supporting regional media,” the report says.
“Many editors believe that even when the South Australian government speaks about rural issues, they do so for metro audiences. Multiple sources commented specifically on the bias South Australian governments have had towards the Adelaide News Corp paper, The Advertiser.”
The report quotes Stock Journal editor Elizabeth Anderson as asserting there is an “urban legend” in South Australia about media power.
“Any story [the state government will] have, they’ll go to The Advertiser first, and The Advertiser wants it exclusively, so then The Advertiser will get it exclusively. And everyone else will get it a little bit later,” Anderson says.
“A little bit later,” according to Sharon Hansen, editor of the Murray Valley Standard, can mean regional news outlets get media releases that affect them 24 to 48 hours after Murdoch’s city paper.
The shoddy treatment even occurs when politicians come to the regions to hold media conferences.
“Sometimes we don’t even know, or we’ll find out an hour beforehand,” Hansen told the researchers. “[Politicians] do a press call down by the river and nobody turns up. Well, you don’t tell us anything, how are we supposed to know? We’re not going to drop everything just because you decide to turn up and talk about fishing or something.”
Peri Strathearn from the Murray Bridge News says previous Labor and Liberal governments were particularly poor.
“We had both [former premiers Jay] Weatherill and [Steven] Marshall come and do things ten kilometres down the road, and no-one thinks to tell regional media, which is disgusting – that we should be finding out about multimillion-dollar announcements for our region from other media because they didn’t even think of us.”
Things appear to have improved a little recently, a few of the editors noted – perhaps due to the Malinauskas Government’s heavy focus on keeping formerly Liberal regional seats in independent hands.
More problems for hypothetical Dry Creek residents
The Dry Creek saltpans pose a number of challenges, particularly if you’re a state government wanting to use them for 10,000 new homes.
As InDaily explored earlier this week, the future northern suburbs housing estate will likely need a rebrand to Wet Creek unless some careful – and expensive – engineering work is done to protect residents from the nearby creeping coastline.
But the eventual residents of Dry Creek – some of whom might not be born yet given the development’s 20-year timespan – may have more to worry about than just climate change-induced sea level rise.
It turns out the saltpans are located next to some of Adelaide’s largest mosquito breeding grounds, where the small insects proliferate along the northern coastal waters and St Kilda mangroves.
A view of the Dry Creek saltpans from Globe Derby Park, looking south towards the city. Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily
Colin Pitman, the City of Salisbury’s former flood protection and wetlands supremo, said St Kilda residents already suffer the “indignity” of millions of swarming mosquitos each year.
“Mosquitos are actually there naturally,” Pitman said.
“It will make life for people living in the urban development area in the old salt fields difficult because they’re right next to what is effectively a natural breeding ground for mosquitos.
“I don’t think the urban planners have thought enough about the impact of urbanisation of land right behind the mangroves where mosquito breeding is actually a natural phenomenon.
“It will be very difficult for people to live in that area.”
Pitman said that while the mosquitos are critical to the local ecosystem, they also carry diseases – most notably Ross River virus.
While the government is seeking out land for housing across the state, InSider suggests a mass shipment of Aerogard might be in order as well.
Life’s a beach in Adelaide
InSider was particularly worried on Tuesday morning when turning up for the James Rankin Oration on Drugs and Alcohol to find the Adelaide Convention Centre plaza all set for a riot – with barricades and police.
Was SAPOL expecting angry mobs to protest needle exchanges? A quick glance at the conference board didn’t help, with the only other meeting listed being about infectious diseases. Anti-vaxers perhaps?
It took inside reporting (asking one of the many police officers milling about the empty plaza) to learn it was all for the Beach Energy AGM being held later in the morning.
Nothing to see here. A normal boring Tuesday morning in Adelaide.
After listening to the oration – at which the CEO of the Aboriginal Drug & Alcohol Council of SA, Scott Wilson, berated governments of all levels for just dusting off old policies with new dates – InSider emerged to find a bustle of security inside the centre and at least 10 pairs of police officers diligently staked out across the plaza and spilling onto North Terrace ensuring four protesters from Extinction Rebellion didn’t storm the hall.
The protesters, who had sent out a Facebook invite to come for a ‘Beach’ party (which got a whopping nine likes), seemed content enough to play beach cricket in their cossies. (Fun fact: The energy company’s first well, Grange-1, was drilled at the site of what today is the Grange Golf Course, near the Adelaide metropolitan beaches – bringing about the name “Beach Petroleum”.)
The police officers, armed with the power to impose up to $50,000 in fines or three months’ jail time under the Summary Offences (Obstruction of Public Places) Amendment Bill 2023 passed in a rush in May in response to the same group blocking rush hour traffic just around the corner, seemed content to spend the morning watching the suited-and-booted Beach investors walk past wondering what exactly was going on.
A message in a bottle
Adelaide-based Parallax Design was one of just 20 design studios from around the world to take part in this year’s Make A Mark – a global project brought to life by bottle manufacturer Estal, paper merchant Avery Dennison and foil manufacturer Kurz.
As reported in Packaging News (PKN is a fave read of InSider), Parallax creative director Matt Remphrey and designer Josh Jarvis came up with a concept, Forbidden Love, to pay homage to the uniquely South Aussie blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, and the story of how it came to be.
Australian winemakers from Yalumba and Penfolds first started experimenting with the Cabernet Shiraz blend in the 1800s. French winemakers also realised the two grapes were a perfect match but were forbidden from making the blend after the Appellation system was implemented.
“Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz blends are Australia’s gift to the world of wine. It is a uniquely Australian wine blend. We wanted to tell a story that was close to our hearts and close to our home. Our concept, Forbidden Love, pays homage to this great Australian blend and the story of how it came to be.” Designer Josh Jarvis told PKN.
The designers said the concept joins the traditional bottle of each grape (Bordeaux for Cabernet and Burgundy for Shiraz) into one double-ended bottle.
Remphrey explained to PKN that each side of the double-ended bottle contains 375mL of liquid, separated by an internal glass barrier. Both ends are sealed with cork and can be opened for the consumer to decant the wines and make their own blend.
The label can be peeled away to reveal “the hidden story” of the blend.
Stuff you should know…
They’re calling it the taste of summer. According to the Reddit post reviews they’re actually not bad. Don’t judge a book by its cover and all that…
Which one of you degenerates made this happen?
byu/RoyaleAuFrommage inaustralian
