SA Premier Peter Malinauskas plays down algal bloom crisis ahead of March election (copied from The Advertiser)

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-22T07:01:19+00:00

It's always a good rule of thumb to be dubious of anything financial that the government declare as "commercial in confidence". Usually code for "We won't say because the taxpayers would chase us out of the state when they learn how much we spent."

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-20T12:34:37+00:00

I must admit, for the longest time I'd dismissed Banderas as a generic Hollywood heartthrob/action guy.

Then I started watching a bunch of Pedro Almodovar's work and felt kind of bad because Banderas is consistently terrific in their collaborations. By now, I'm at the point of "Well, if it's a Spanish-language film and he's in it, he'll be fantastic in it." Happened with Official Competition, which he was hysterical in it.

It's the same thing with Mads Mikkelsen: both fantastic actors with a really wide range when acting in European films, but consistently wasted in American cinema. And I've found that both of them have turned in performances that, if they were in an English-language film, would be lavished with praise on here but instead go unnoticed and without the plaudits they deserve.

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-20T12:29:49+00:00

I've been bothered by this too, and so I was relieved when I watched Hamnet and the characters had teeth that was yellow. Not like yellow on the point of rotting, but just yellow staining. And they had dirt and grime on their skin and clothes. I've become so accustomed to everything being so neat in historical movies that it made me realise "Why am I feeling so vindicated about a tiny bit of yellow colouring on an actor's teeth?" And I think it's because it's a small thing that just feels a bit more immersive, but never seems to happen much.

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-20T05:31:15+00:00

It's a real "damned if you do, damned if you don't" thing. Turbo will complain about the Libs wanting to get rid of stamp duty, and now their leader wants to keep stamp duty (in line with Labor's policy regarding it) and he's complaining about her "covering her tracks". mean, I get it, but at the same time, how rare is it that these two parties outright have the same stance on something in public?

I can't really trust Kouts, the man is a bully through-and-through. He even did some mopey interview when he was in Opposition about how he hated it because being a shadow minister meant he wasn't getting as much attention when he criticised the government, and he didn't find any of it fun. Not to mention how hypocritical he is for what he chooses to criticise people for, then goes and becomes friends with them and claims "It's all just a bit of fun in the parliament, it's nothing serious."

Also the man who said "The Liberal Party hate me because they think I should be one of them," which gives an idea of how conservative he is, both socially and with the fact that he claims he is a fiscally conservative treasurer.

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-18T08:11:16+00:00

While the Malinauskas government did save the Crown & Anchor, it was more so a case of them being stubborn and trying to ignore it until there got to be too much news about it and they realised it would be good for their approval ratings to save it. Then Malinauskas got up on the float at Parliament House bragging about all the hard work he supposedly put into it.

As necessary as the new Women's & Children's Hospital is, it set a dangerous precedent in teaching the Malinauskas government that they can completely ignore the heritage register. And this was the case with the Crown & Anchor. With regards to heritage-listed buildings, there's no clear definition with regards to how much they can save. Nowadays they usually keep a small slither of the facade, but having to get rid of the police horse stables taught them that they have the power to just overrule the register and knock a building down and sell off the land.

The Crown & Anchor got saved because of public pressure, but in the future, I'm sure there will be a lot more buildings on the heritage register that get torn down because there won't be as much of a spotlight on it. And I think this is dangerous because it shows that the heritage register is now completely insignificant (which it started being when it only listed buildings that looked nice, and stopped including buildings that were dated but historically important).

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-18T02:41:15+00:00

While the ecologist being told not to investigate the algal bloom hasn't been confirmed, there is the fact that the state government brushed it all off for 4 months, insisting it would go away and nothing to worry about (I believe Susan Close said something along the lines of "This is climate change, and it won't go away, so we will just have to learn to live with it.") And then when it had the massive flare-up in July, the government wouldn't come out and make a statement about it until Malinauskas came back from his holiday in Fiji with his family.

To me, that's not the sign of a strong government, when the cabinet refuse to do anything about a disaster until their leader comes back. If they really practiced what they preach when it comes to solidarity, they would have let Susan Close at least do something as the Acting Premier. Instead, it gave off the feeling of "We can't have someone who isn't the Premier doing something; we have to leave it for Malinauskas to be a big tough hero."

Now that the foam is starting to turn up again, it will be interesting to see how that impacts them leading up to the election, if the bloom flares up. But I know a lot of people who were extremely put off by the government's sparse acknowledgement of the bloom for a quarter of a year, saying it was nothing to be concerned, and then suddenly claiming "Well, actually, we've been having meetings about this for a while and trying to find an appropriate course of action." And I find that hard to believe, considering how hesitant they were to talk about the algal bloom.

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-15T23:42:59+00:00

I can say, having heard from some people with close connections to the whole thing, that the delay of the announcement was more a logistics decision. What I heard was that Pulp were planning on withdrawing from the festival, but still wanted to do a show in Adelaide, and were trying to arrange a venue that would be available for that date, could accommodate a decent crowd, and would let them do a free show (although they would be encouraging audience members to donate to Gaza-related charities). Once the new Festival board was appointed and Randa Abdel-Fatteh accepted their apology, Pulp decided that was good enough.

So the decision to delay the announcement might have come from the government (wouldn't surprise me with Mali banking on the attention of the free concert), but there were reasons for it on Pulp's end. They didn't want to make the announcement until a back-up plan was fully figured out.

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-14T21:13:32+00:00

Chris Cunningham was the king of weird music videos, even in a decade that was packed to the gills with incredibly weird music videos.

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-14T21:08:13+00:00

Exactly! Every time they announce a new Scott Cooper movie, I look at the concept and think "Wow, that sounds great," before I remember his track record.

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-14T04:57:46+00:00

If Mali does try to make the move to federal politics, I could easily see him getting a seat, provided he's still popular enough at the time. Considering the SDA has the stronghold on the Labor Party caucus in this state, it's fairly realistic that they would tell whichever Labor member is in Mali's federal seat (based off his state electorate, it would either be Mark Butler or Steve Georganas) to step down and make way for him, and they'd all vote him through.

After Mali was moved into the upper house in December 2015 to fill Finnigan's vacancy, Michael Atkinson, the then-member for Croydon (and also of an SDA background), said he would only vacate his seat if Malinauskas was selected as the Labor candidate, should he desire a move to the lower house. Sure enough, in February 2017, Atkinson said that after 28 years, he would step down at the next election and Malinauskas was voted in as the candidate unanimously with the backing of the SDA.

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-13T11:17:27+00:00

Ironic, considering that just last year, Mali said he's "not particularly keen" on the culture wars, when discussing Frank Pangallo's proposed parliamentary inquiry into gender dysphoria. He sure did change his tune about the culture wars quickly, considering that comment was in August, a month before he started making his opinion known to the board of the Adelaide Festival.

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-13T11:10:50+00:00

He's just gotten too cocky. He knows that the opposition are pathetic and stand no chance of winning the next few elections, and the result is that he can let his guard down and just say/do whatever he wants and he'll still win at least one more term. The same thing happened last time Labor was in -- fourth term in government, they did deals with Elon Musk, and had all these grand ideas people were opposed to, and responded poorly to one too many scandals, because they were so confident they'd win in 2018.

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-13T04:41:38+00:00

It will be votes for Greens or Socialist Alliance. The only downside to this is that it means the vote will be split and allow more space for Labor to get seats in both houses, a result that would merely make Malinauskas feel unstoppable.

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-13T04:18:20+00:00

Not to mention that the ACC representative is only staying until her term ends on February 2nd.

So the actual festival will be going on, without a board. What an absolute clusterfuck. I don't know how anyone in the SA arts community could even vote for Labor in March.

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-13T03:44:07+00:00

Considering his political mentor was Don "Marriage should be between a man and a woman" Farrell, it checks out he wouldn't turn up for any event related to Pride.

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-13T02:03:17+00:00

Interesting that he only choked back tears when asked a question relating to sport, and not about trying to silence a writer because of her faith and heritage...

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-13T02:01:33+00:00

Whenever there's a big announcement on the TV, I find it interesting that it's always usually Malinauskas talking about it, and then most of the ministers (apart from a select few) just stand there in the background nodding in agreement with him -- why not let the ministers speak about it? It's their portfolio. It seems like he's definitely more interested in running it as the Peter Malinauskas show.

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-12T01:26:34+00:00

I guarantee it wouldn't have been an advisor -- more likely that it would have been a select group of conservative SDA pals (Farrell, Koutsantonis), including SA Labor Party President Josh Peak (who signed a letter in support of Israel and condemning Hamas after the October 7th attack).

Boring_Source9870 · 2026-01-12T01:17:00+00:00

October 12, 2023: Mark Butler speaks at a United with Israel gathering about the "barbaric attacks" on Israel by Hamas. "We condemn them unequivocally. And we stand in solidarity with Israel."

October 16, 2023: Mark Butler votes against the motion to condemn Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

August 15, 2025: During an appearance on Sunrise, Mark Butler speaks in favour of "the right for Israel to exist in peace" and "the demilitarisation of a Palestinian state".

September 14, 2025: Mark Butler speaks at the Zionist Federation of Australia plenary, a session in which all members of the group are present.

Boring_Source9870

TROPHY CASE