Yet again Malcolm King writes another Adelaide bashing article based on illogical conclusions and outright lies!

Unlike hot water in a chocolate teapot, more tall buildings would not damage Adelaide in any way. (There is a minor exception: those such as 51 Pirie Street that are on the route for a railway would be very damaging if no provision was made for it.) Indeed having more office blocks in the CBD would be good for Adelaide, as it would drive down rents, making it more attractive for businesses to locate there. And while Adelaide CBD office vacancy rates are currently high, that's mainly due to cyclical economic factors; a few years ago they were the lowest in Australia, and there's not been a mad spate of building since.

Having government infrastructure projects prop up the construction industry in a downturn is a very sensible tactic; it does make sense to have an industry that can respond when private demand returns, and while I disagree with some of the things the government's priorities, I can't dispute the fact that SA needs government spending on infrastructure to make up for their neglect of it in the 1990s.

As for extraordinarily high rents in some suburbs, surely that just proves high demand?
And the 30 year life cycle of commercial buildings is a myth, or at best only applies in a few locations.

Home buyers in the City do have jobs. Indeed most people do, despite the decline of some of our export industries. But there are also a lot of renters in the CBD (not all with jobs; some are students) so the target of 50000 CBD residents in 15 years is entirely realistic.

We have the infrastructure for water, and if we need more we can always construct a reservoir on the North Para.

There will aways be rent seekers looking out for their own interests, but assuming decline like Malcolm would be far more counterproductive than listening to developers.

Rhrosty, sorry mate, but you have to open the other eye too, if you actually want to see the full picture.

Yes I know, it just may spoil a good bit of rationalising, but does lead to being better informed.

Actually Has, I was recounting actual history, rather than rationalizing as you (par for the course) fallaciously contend.
Suggest in future you put brain into gear before engaging mouth!
Always providing you can tolerate the smell of burning emanating from previously unused cerebral circuits!?

Simply put, Ireland built a very strong and robust economy, (the Celtic tiger) by investing in their best people and their better ideas!
And then completely crueled it by very stupidly allowing foreign speculators into their real estate market/development, and on the back of massive foreign debt.

Then compounded their problems by trying to rescue those debt laden foreign developers or rather the private Irish banks that supported them; with taxpayers funds, and in so doing created their own extreme Financial Crisis.

It really was that simple, historical fact and not rocket science or clever rationalizing; for those still able to use their eyes and ears; and brains they were born with!

America tried something similar, given their banks and or insurance companies had allegedly grown too big to fail!
And where now every dollar of public debt now creates just 0.03 dollars worth of economic growth! The foreseeable consequence of trying to protect entirely unearned privilege!

Better one should be a little one eyed than blindfolded, and by personal choice at ones own hands Has!
Suggest in future you refrain from judging all others on your own patently flawed personal standards; or numb nut ideological idiocy!
Facts are chiels that dinna whinge Has!
Pouge ma hone.
Rhrosty.

"In Crowland, it's as if Alfred Deakin was still Prime Minister, so little has the economy diversified; so unprepared is it for trading in a global economy."

Adelaide will be unprepared for trading in the global economy for so long as it's closest international trading partner is Mawson Shelter in Antarctica.

What Adelaide needs is lighting-fast internet and telecommunications and a call-center industry - something that can be placed at the end of the world provided the connectivity is up to scratch. It already has cheap land and boredom - a software industry would leverage those assets.

PaulMurrayCbr, Adelaide does trade in the global economy already. And it has call centres, though competition from India has taken most of the money out of that industry. Adelaide has software companies too, though the main requirements for a software industry aren't boredom or cheap land; they're local demand and the right sort of education.

Like every part of Australia, a proper NBN is certainly needed in Adelaide. But to attract high value emoloyer to Adelaide's CBD (which is Australia's third biggest) a railway is needed under it.

Isn't progress all about knowing where your advantages are and capitalising on them? At the end of the day, it's going to take a lot of digging in storage to reverse a lot of what politicians think has helped the company and go back to the root of the issues and find a simpler solution. I really don't understand why so many people are making this a lot harder than it should be. We should be focuising on education and infrastructure instead of fighting internally about what went wrong right?