j South Australia is a unique part of Australia and it always
has been. As the only Australian province founded by free
settlers, the state has had a long history of innovation, liberty
and vibrant culture. Today, it has come to be known as both
‘the wine state’ and ‘the festival state’, because one slogan
simply isn’t enough for a state with such a diverse range of
experiences.
South Australian wines take pride of place in bottle shops
from Tokyo to Copenhagen, and everywhere in between.
Their world-class wineries—while a great selling point—are
only the tip of the South Australian iceberg. The state has
been putting itself through a revolutionary modernising
exercise. Revitalisation, re-purposing and developing are at
the top of the bill for South Australia and as a result, it has
been enjoying a period of strong growth. This hasn’t been
an accident. There’s a host of people working behind the
scenes to steer South Australia into the future, and I sat down
with a number of them for a talk on the year that’s been, and
the plans that lie ahead.
Steven Marshall, the Premier of South Australia
The captain of the ship
It didn’t take long to organise an interview with Steven
Marshall, the Premier of South Australia. I was expecting to
have to play email tennis for quite a while to get a hold of
Mr Marshall. Less than a week after my initial request, my
phone rings. The Premier seems excited to get back in touch
with Chief of Staff, and I suspect he’s got a lot he wants to
catch us up on. “G’day Bennet!” Mr Marshall greets me as I
answer the phone; no muss, no fuss, no press secretary. Just
a call straight from the Premier’s desk.
The first order of business I want to discuss is how the
state has grown as a destination for events and visitors since
he last spoke with us in 2018. His government has had a
year to realise their vision for the state, and Mr Marshall says
that since taking office South Australia has been barrelling
towards the future.
“The new government has been in place for just over a
year. South Australia is a much more confident, focused
state,” Mr Marshall says. He backs up his statement by
mentioning his government’s considerable funding efforts to
make South Australia a great place to visit.
“We are particularly interested in growing our tourism
numbers. We’ve already announced a significant increase
in the bid fund for South Australia to bring more events and
conferences to South Australia. This is a critical part of our
overall plan to grow tourism visitation,” he explains.
To support the growing number of visitors, the Marshall
Government has also allocated $1.1 billion for regional road
upgrades, and has put more money aside in the new budget
for ‘congestion-busting’ roadworks in Adelaide.
The Premier also noted another major win for the state,
securing two major lead-up events to the Australian Open
early next year. The State Government injected $10 million
into the Memorial Drive Tennis Centre to help secure the
events. “This will be a great reason for people to come to
South Australia. They can see a great sporting event but then
stay on for a few days and visit another part of our great
state,” Mr Marshall said.
But while it has been a successful year, what about
the long term? With the sun beginning to set on 2019, the
Premier is setting his policy telescope to long-range as he
30 Chief of Staff | Issue 3 2019
explains his vision for the future of South Australia.
“South Australia has historically been very strong with
agriculture, mining and manufacturing, but looking to the
future we see these traditional sectors being augmented
to focus on future industries. We are now looking to the
horizon, not looking in the rear-vision mirror,” Mr Marshall
says, before firing off a list of new industries he wants to
focus on. “Space, defence, artificial intelligence, blockchain,
machine learning, cyber security—these are the sectors
which we believe will be very strong in the future and these
are the sectors we are focused on in South Australia.”
This transition isn’t just a dream, Mr Marshall’s
government is throwing its full weight behind these new
industries. The development of ‘Lot Fourteen’ on the site of
the old Royal Adelaide Hospital is set to be Australia’s first
creation and innovation neighbourhood. And to ice the cake,
in December last year the Federal Government announced
that Adelaide would host Australia’s new space agency.
“I think it’s going to be the most exciting start-up,
scale-up, innovation precinct in the entire country,” Mr
Marshall happily explains. “It’ll house the Australian Space
Agency, the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre and the
Australian Institute of Machine Learning, and as a start-up,
scale-up incubator with more than 650 people present.”
Mr Marshall paints his plans for future policies in three
broad strokes: lower taxes, less regulation, and a massive
investment in infrastructure. As our conversation comes to
a close, the Premier extends a welcome to EAs looking to
South Australia for their next event.
“Executive assistants bringing conferences to Adelaide
are always delighted with the experience that they have
here. They find all of our facilities up to scratch and the
ease of doing business in South Australia is always a focus.
Everybody is welcome, please put Adelaide on your agenda.”
Talking meetings with the Minister
Last year when Chief of Staff met with David Ridgway,
the South Australian Minister for Trade, Tourism and
Investment, he was well prepared for his second
parliamentary sitting. Now, over 12 months on, his