Bee-grade celebrity’s fashion turn | Mayoral battle royale | Parliament hits Top Gear
This week, InSider examines a curious mayoral race, Trev’s flight into fashion, and a Climate Minister’s love for a petrolhead.
Climate bee-lievers unite
As regular readers know, InSider is being driven to distraction by a certain motoring organisation’s hideous winged mascot infesting our fair city, its bus shelters and airwaves.
But now the weird and bristly Trev has been embraced by fashion.
Designer and artist Stavroula Adameitis has featured the bee-grade celebrity to “make the climate crisis (and the disinformation around it) localised and hilarious – in a tongue firmly-in-cheek way!”
She’s captured and channelled his odd essence into a message, reclaiming Trev as a climate warrior. We hear the RAA even slid into her Instagram DMs to compliment the work, although perhaps missing the satirical point.
Come on, does this not look like Trev is about to push you under the bus if you’re not insured? Photo: InSider
In her signature kitch style, the striking poster caught three separate reporters’ attention as we passed the Adelaide City Council’s ARTPOD in Paul Kelly Lane, where Stavroula is currently the artist in residence.
The work is part of an ongoing collaboration with the Director of Strategic Foresight at the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Dr Ariella Helfgott, and Stavroula says it’s their shared mission to inspire South Aussies to imagine the future with humour and joy instead of “the standard ho-hum apocalyptic imagery”.
We una-pollen-getically love it.
If you’re abuzz with creativity, visit Frida’s hive at ARTPOD. Photo: InSider
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Top council position no cakewalk for J-Lo
Adelaide Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith is running for president of the state’s peak council body; and as the state’s highest profile local government official, you’d be forgiven for thinking she’s the presumptive nominee.
But the former Labor minister faces some stiff competition, with a conga line of metropolitan mayors putting their hands up for the $65,375-a-year job.
Among those vying for president of the Local Government Association – or LGA South Australia as they preferred to be called – is Lomax-Smith’s former Labor colleague, now Marion Mayor, Kris Hanna.
Hanna’s election as president would mark somewhat of a turnaround in his relations with the LGA – four years ago, he ended up in court for producing misleading election materials about the peak body in his 2018 mayoral re-election bid.
Hanna’s leaflets claimed the LGA had awarded its board a pay rise of $40,000, when he meant to write $4000.
“I criticised the board of the LGA for proposing to increase board fees massively, by a multiple of seven times… the problem was, I put an extra zero in the figure I was using,” Hanna said in October 2020.
The LGA lodged a complaint with the Electoral Commissioner who took the case to the Magistrates Court, where Hanna pleaded guilty and was slapped with a $600 fine.
Outside court, Hanna said he was “probably the most outspoken person criticising the faults of the LGA leading up to 2018”, adding that he was “defending the interests of ratepayers which led me to criticise the excesses of the LGA board”.
Marion Mayor Kris Hanna speaking after his court appearance over misleading election materials in October 2020.
LGA presidents as a rule of thumb need to get on okay with the LGA board, so perhaps it’s no surprise that Hanna is striking a more conciliatory tone in 2024.
In a written pitch to South Australia’s councils for the LGA post, Hanna acknowledged the past and said: “Admittedly, I was critical of the LGA at that time, and it has been pleasing to see improvements in LGA benefits over the years.”
But he also hinted that the LGA’s fiscal responsibility hasn’t left his sights yet, adding: “If councils agree with me that it is time to extensively review the LGA budget and operations, to ensure value for money, then I would be glad to apply myself conscientiously to the task.”
“Of course, I realise such a challenge means working constructively as part of a team with fellow board member and the CEO; I look forward to it,” Hanna said.
Also running for LGA president is City of West Torrens Mayor Michael Coxon and Port Adelaide Enfield Mayor Claire Boan. Mitcham Mayor Heather Holmes-Ross, who contested the seat of Waite at the last state election, is also in the mix.
The number of candidates for the top position has even prompted the LGA to consider moving to preferential voting for its president rather than its current first-past-the-post system.
Stay informed, daily
The votes for LGA president will be counted on November 5.
Climate Minister endorses petrolhead
Minister for Climate, Environment and Water Dr Susan Close enlightened parliament with a surprise endorsement this week.
The Deputy Premier, the highest-ranking Left faction member in Labor’s state parliamentary ranks and the spearhead of the Malinauskas Government’s climate initiatives, is a “big fan” of ex-Top Gear presenter and noted green movement critic Jeremy Clarkson.
Close offered the unlikely endorsement as she was grilled on Tuesday about legislation to update South Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and renewable electricity targets. Clarkson, it should be noted, has evolved on the issue of climate change since his days of screaming “Power!” on the Top Gear test track.
“Ridiculously, I am a big fan of Jeremy Clarkson,” Close said, revealing she had recently completed season three of Clarkson’s popular farming show, Clarkson’s Farm.
“He is not politically someone that most people would expect me to enjoy, but he makes good television and he surrounds himself with people who call him out for some of his behaviour, and I enjoy it.”
After three more questions from the Opposition benches, Close returned to the Clarkson point to enthuse further about his farming show.
“I was so distracted by admitting that I liked Jeremy Clarkson that I forgot to tell you the end of the story,” she said.
“Towards the end of 2023, when it was such a disastrous year for primary producers in the Northern Hemisphere, he said – and he knows the role that he has played over the years in trying to suggest that climate change is rubbish, and hooning around in his magnificent vehicles – the climate is awful and someone should really say something about it.
“That is Jeremy Clarkson. I noted that.”
Jeremy Clarkson. Photo: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Deputy Premier Susan Close. File photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily
As far as InSider can tell, Clarkson has only been mentioned in South Australia’s parliament once before.
On June 14, 2022, during debate about the Adelaide 500, Transport Minister and Labor Right heavyweight Tom Koutsantonis declared Clarkson was “one of my heroes”. Love of the British petrolhead appears to be an item of Labor cross-factional unity.
Slow Down for Yellow
No, not Trev, the aforementioned sin against nature. Legislation to protect RAA patrols and emergency and recovery workers at the roadside passed State Parliament yesterday.
The new laws will extend the current 25 km/h speed limit for emergency services vehicles to also include breakdown service and recovery vehicles when their amber flashing lights are operating.
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RAA Senior Manager Safety and Infrastructure Charles Mountain said that between 2019-2023, there were 20 reportable safety incidents caused by cars driving past breakdowns without due care, according to RAA Road Service data.
“Alarmingly, this included five incidents where RAA patrol vans were hit by a car or motorcycle, and another five where traffic cones were hit or dragged down the road,” Mountain said.
“These new laws will ensure people Slow Down for Yellow and help keep people safe and reduce the incidents of near misses.”
