Adelaide is dying

Hassell (leaving Adelaide) Edit Salon, Hills (OSullivan Beach), Emerald Custom Homes, D&C Homes, Edit Super Salon, Coast to Coast Homes, Brand SA, Hillgrove Copper Mine, Phil McMahon Real Estate, Unique Urban Built, Clevertar (in administration), Bradken Foundry, Cubic Homes, JML Home Constructions, Yeoman & Haskell (kitchens), ABF Solutions, Feast! Fine Foods, Carter Holt Harvey (Nagwarry), OAS Group, Platinum Fine Homes, Coca Cola Amatil (production), Hydro Services SA, Paesan Cucina, Red Door Bakery, San Churro, Chocolat, Panoramic Homes, Champion Travel, J&H Williams, McCoys Services, Curious Squire, Hummingbird Homes, Adelaide Central Electrical, Dowling Homes, Whistles Clothing, Inghams (McLaren Flat), Accolade Bottling Plant (Reynella), Sanitarium (production), Archer Hotel, Trident Tooling, Bridgestone (production), Autodom, Carr Components, RPG Group, Bridgestone, Clyde-Apac, Priority Engineering Services, Krome Studios, Modular Furniture, Sheridan, ADCIV, PSG Elecraft, Tenneco (Walker Exhausts), Mary Martins, Henry Austin (restaurant), Qantas catering, the Port Lincoln Tuna Cannery, Red Ochre construction, Angas Park, Marshall Thompson Homes, Big Star Records, Heading Contractors, McCain Foods (Penola), Hills (Antennas), Bowland, Linke Contracting (Barossa), Leane Electrical, RS Burbridge, LeCornu, Charter Construction, Mid Coast Surf, Kitchen Connection, St Morris Home Timber & Hardware, and many, many more.

This is indicative of major ongoing contraction in SA's economy and labour market.

Adelaide is also mind-manacled by dire sociological problems.

Greater Adelaide's population is barely growing at 8000 people per year, according to the ABS. The good news is that only 5200 people left the state in 2018-17, compared to more than 7000 the year before.

The bad news is that these figures rely on departing individuals notifying Medicare of a change of address. The true number of emigrates is closer to 9000 per year. Less than seven per cent return and of those, four percent leave again.

Last year, South Australia lost a House of Representatives seatdue to falling population. This is very dangerous because the state gets almost 50 per cent of its monies from Federal Government coffers. Diminished representation holds the threat of diminished revenue. The Marshall Liberal government is trying to raise unpopular taxes to fund budget shortfalls.

The flight of human capital has created a closed system, driving an extraordinary decline in organisational standards. A lack of new thinking in Adelaide's public and private sector organisations, has led to staff and group regression, bullying, white-anting, nepotism, blame shifting, groupthink and passive aggression. It's a graveyard for the entrepreneurial mind.

To compound this blight, private recruitersare eliminating candidates of merit, because they're perceived to be "too old" or else they have international or interstate qualifications and experience, and therefore pose a threat to their immediate senior reports.

If they do land a job, they're confronted with the fallout of 40 years of inaction and comments such as, "but this is the way we've always done it". They stay less than a year or two before hightailing it to organisations operating in the 21^st century.

Considering these factors, is it wise to build Australia's new submarine force at a cost of $50B in Adelaide? While the state has excellent tradesmen and women, it is utterly bereft of competent mid-level and senior managers. You can't grow flowers in a desert.

The media

I used to joke that The Advertiser was conducting a sociological experiment on what's left of its readership.Its boosterism does not refer to any independent economic indicators, indexes or external measures of well-being. This is par for the course.