Adelaide – Athens of the South’s long, slow decline

Of course others had done very well – especially those who had started small niche businesses in IT and web design. They went out on their own and 'made it happen.'

The filmmakers of Oranges and Sunshine– a film about English 'orphans' sent to Australia in the 1950s, 60s and early 70s - chose Adelaide as a location because its skyline looks like Perth' s did in the 70s.

This might be seen as a victory for those who despise development, growth and change but it's a visual – and slightly comic - indictment of stagnation and complacency in the City of Churches.

Just as worrying as the structural degeneration, is an odd form of 'decline and fall' negativity by urban cultural elites who, on the one hand, decry Adelaide's parochial attitude and on the other, attack those who want to build a new $1.5 billion hospital in the city.

The employment market– 'recruitment apartheid'

It's difficult for job seekers from other countries and interstate to understand Adelaide's 'unique' recruitment establishments and employment market.

Some Adelaide recruitment establishments so slavishly follow the directives of their clients and in the name of 'cultural fit,' exclude everyone from well qualified executives (read: over qualified and possibly a career threat); young women (read: child bearing age), educated abroad (read: people of colour or Muslims) and professional men over 45 years of age (read: too old/will need training) – and that's just for starters. While the age worker revolution is taking off in the eastern states, Adelaide is sacking older workers.

Not every recruitment agency is a cringing toady. But there are enough around to hear them croaking. What basic assumptions are at work in the City of Churches to allow this sort of 1950s mentality to reign? This is fear at work - or not at work - as the case maybe.

Adelaide is not a conservative city. It is a fearful city and this is nowhere more present that in its employment culture and hiring practices. It banishes new thinkers and 'doers' to the dole queues. Yet those people and their ideas are the future of Adelaide. The term 'cultural fit' is a synonym for recruitment apartheid.

Leaving in droves

In the 2009-2010 financial year, 26,300 South Australians left the state with those aged 20-39 making up half of this figure. On average about 9000 people arrived from interstate. Of these, 35 per cent came from over seas.

Australia recently slashed its migrant intake by about 17 per cent. That's bad news for SA. They comprise new blood for the beleaguered state. They would be 'new blood' if they could get a job. SA's aged care industry could not survive without people from South East Asia and India working as orderlies and attendants.