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Speaker 1: The Adelaide City Council the other night release their city

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Speaker 1: plan and what it shows is they want to increase

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Speaker 1: Adelaide's population to fifty thousand by twenty thirty six, and

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Speaker 1: you think, well, is that likely. It's just over ten

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Speaker 1: years away, eleven effectively, plus a few months this year,

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Speaker 1: and you think, I don't know if that's going to happen.

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Speaker 1: There's some other things in there that you think will

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Speaker 1: makes sense. I guess to extend the tram network down

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Speaker 1: North Terrace to where it is at the Botanic Gardens said,

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Speaker 1: to extend it down hut Street and Halifax Street and

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Speaker 1: follow the city Loop bus that provides a free service

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Speaker 1: for effectively at least a quarter of the tram route

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Speaker 1: along King William Street and North Terrace. They may as

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Speaker 1: well finish the loop off and have it come all

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Speaker 1: the way back to North Terrace via Morford Street. Makes sense.

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Speaker 1: I don't know what that'll a congestion in the city.

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Speaker 1: That's another story, but at least on paper, you think, well,

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Speaker 1: that's least logical. But most of the councilors voted in

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Speaker 1: favor of the city plan. One didn't, and that's Counselor

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Speaker 1: Henry Davis, who joins me. Now, Henry, good morning, good morning,

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Speaker 1: fair assumption, fair rap.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I've always the one voting against these things. Very

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Speaker 2: you know, I'm a I'm a big dreamer. You know,

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Speaker 2: I'm very aspirational. I'm quite visionary, I think. But the

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Speaker 2: problem is that what I'm really seeing is that it's

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Speaker 2: the plan doesn't back it up. And I'm very you know,

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Speaker 2: I feel like I'm quite rational as well, and so

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Speaker 2: were I feel like we're being sold this great vision

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Speaker 2: that could happen, but I just don't see the machinery

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Speaker 2: behind it.

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Speaker 1: Okay, well, look that's a Flet's start with that. Fifty

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Speaker 1: thousand is the population? Is the machinery there to support

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Speaker 1: fiften year? What are we now is probably the very

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Speaker 1: first question.

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Speaker 2: It's about twenty five twenty six thousand residents in the

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Speaker 2: city and we have, you know, hundreds of thousands of

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Speaker 2: people visiting the city every year. Look, I take a

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Speaker 2: very pragmatic thing view to this, and I come from

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Speaker 2: private practice. So when I see these documents which we

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Speaker 2: have a bold, innovative plan for the future and it's

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Speaker 2: going to be great, I go, yeah, sure, but what's

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Speaker 2: all the detail and how is this actually going to work.

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Speaker 2: Great to have aspirations, and perhaps maybe my challenges with bureaucracies,

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Speaker 2: as the strategic documents are a lot of kind of

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Speaker 2: fluffy words, and I just don't see how that will

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Speaker 2: deliver into an actual outcome. And the assumptions that are

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Speaker 2: being made, if you look at them, test those underlying

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Speaker 2: assumptions about how we actually get there, they don't make sense.

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Speaker 2: And the other thing is the city of Adelaide is

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Speaker 2: very much contradictory from the finance point of view. So

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Speaker 2: when we forecast things for the city's finances, we make

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Speaker 2: one assumption about our city's growth, and then in the

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Speaker 2: city plan we're making this whole other assumption, and they're very,

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Speaker 2: very different. So in the long term financial plan, for example,

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Speaker 2: the assumption around growth is one percent per year. Right,

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Speaker 2: so over the next ten years, we're assuming one percent

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Speaker 2: per growth per year. So in twelve years time, in

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Speaker 2: twenty thirty six, that's gonna be twelve percent growth. But

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Speaker 2: now we have this city plan on the other side

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Speaker 2: of things, that is assuming we're going to one hundred

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Speaker 2: percent growth, And I'm like, well, how do those two

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Speaker 2: things match up? Because the finance gurus are saying, yeah,

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Speaker 2: that's not going to happen.

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Speaker 1: So what's the point of having council meetings to spend

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Speaker 1: three hours or whatever threshing out something that's inspirational, that's

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Speaker 1: got a good good spend of you Wednesday night, well,

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Speaker 1: Tuesday night, Yeah, I would.

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Speaker 2: Say that from most of my truesday nights. The I

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Speaker 2: think that's right. Look, the issue as well as I

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Speaker 2: have around the actual concrete plan to get there, and

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Speaker 2: this really comes from a driver from the stake cupment, right,

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Speaker 2: So this is not the city. There's not the City

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Speaker 2: of Adelaide aspiring to have fifty thousand residents. They're like,

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Speaker 2: that's I really don't think the city council cares that much,

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Speaker 2: to be honest, Like we were there to provide roads,

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Speaker 2: rates and rubbish. We're not there to drive population growth.

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Speaker 2: I mean, that's that's on our main aim. So this

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Speaker 2: is an aspiration from the state government that's kind of

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Speaker 2: you know, been handed down to the city council and

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Speaker 2: now we're on board with the plan. But the problem

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Speaker 2: is that you know, they want developers and private interests

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Speaker 2: to start making assumptions based off of this number into

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Speaker 2: the future, and I just I really don't think that

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Speaker 2: the private market is going to make that assumption. And

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Speaker 2: even in the Lord Mayor's own rhetoric around this, you

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Speaker 2: know she's talking, she's talking in words of that it

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Speaker 2: would be you know, extremely lucky, like you know, she's

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Speaker 2: saying that it would be it's highly aspirinational. You know,

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Speaker 2: it would be a fantastic if we could do that,

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Speaker 2: But it's all if, And what I want to see

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Speaker 2: is a concrete planet. How we're going to do that.

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Speaker 2: And in the plane itself, there are two versions, all right.

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Speaker 2: There is a version that says that we'll have you know,

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Speaker 2: thirty six thousand people in twelve years time. Well, and

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Speaker 2: then there's another one that kind of assumes this is

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Speaker 2: what the city would look like in fifty thousand, sorry,

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Speaker 2: with fifty thousand residents and the assumptions that are going

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Speaker 2: to be there. So I'm sorry. This is it is

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Speaker 2: quite detailed, but I want to point out one assumption.

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Speaker 2: For example, so at the moment, per resident her apartment,

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Speaker 2: there is one point seven people in it on average.

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Speaker 2: It's not like there's one and a half people, but

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Speaker 2: there's one point seven people in every apartment on average.

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Speaker 2: So the Lord Mayor kind of and the administration just goes, well,

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Speaker 2: that's not really going to deliver fifty thousand people. But

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Speaker 2: what if we just assume that there's now two point

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Speaker 2: one people there, Well, that fixes our numbers. And I

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Speaker 2: mean that is not a way to run a government.

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Speaker 2: It's just to fix your assumptions and just assume these

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Speaker 2: things away and assume they think. And that's my real

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Speaker 2: issue with this whole process. And when I say one

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Speaker 2: final thing, so yeah, sorry, one final thing, but a

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Speaker 2: really important thing is all the city planners are talking

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Speaker 2: about climate change. Really most of it's about transport and

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Speaker 2: climate change, which isn't going to drive growth.

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Speaker 1: No, well, that's that's true. But the one thing you

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Speaker 1: said a bit earlier, the council shouldn't be or isn't

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Speaker 1: there to drive population growth. That's mostly on the state

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Speaker 1: government and the push behind increasing people in the city,

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Speaker 1: et cetera. But population growth does drive rates, doesn't it.

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Speaker 1: And that's the aspiration I suppose for the council is

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Speaker 1: you get more people living there in more properties, equals

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Speaker 1: more rates.

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Speaker 2: Yes, but it also equals more costs. All right, So

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Speaker 2: what we need to be doing is efficient per person,

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Speaker 2: so our spend per person in delivering services is probably

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Speaker 2: a really key metric. And if you have more people, yeah,

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Speaker 2: to get more rates, but now you have more bins,

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Speaker 2: you have more need for parklands, you need to have

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Speaker 2: more libraries, more all these things. So what I'm the danger,

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Speaker 2: I suppose with making these assumptions which are unrealistic, basically

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Speaker 2: means that we could end up spending a whole bunch

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Speaker 2: of money assuming a population of fifty thousand providing services

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Speaker 2: of fifty thousand, which I actually don't see them doing that,

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Speaker 2: but then actually not getting that growth in this massive

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Speaker 2: overinvestment if they actually believe it, but actually don't see

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Speaker 2: the long term financial plan the spend required to service

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Speaker 2: fifty thousand people. So I'm getting these major contradictions. We've

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Speaker 2: got this bold aspirational plan and then really lacking the

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Speaker 2: underpinning framework that would actually support that.

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Speaker 1: Okay, the tram extension, and this has been talked about

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Speaker 1: well ever since the line started going down North Terrace

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Speaker 1: is finishing it off in a loop around the city

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Speaker 1: to replace the Interconnector City Connector bus the ninety nine

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Speaker 1: and ninety eight bus routes that circle the city. Is

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Speaker 1: that a good idea because and now I don't know

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Speaker 1: what it'll do for congestion, but at least it'll take

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Speaker 1: the tram somewhere else beyond the botanic gardens.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it doesn't make much sense. I work on North Terrace,

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Speaker 2: so I love jumping on the tram growing to the

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Speaker 2: facial center of partment house or whatever. But I think

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Speaker 2: it really is a great idea. But so if we

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Speaker 2: look at hout Straight, for example, if the tram was

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Speaker 2: going to come down Hut Street, you'd have to remove

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Speaker 2: the center line of tree, and you'd probably have to

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Speaker 2: remove two lines of traffic, and you'd also have to

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Speaker 2: then remove the car parking on each side. So the

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Speaker 2: Hot Street plan as well that we just looked at,

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Speaker 2: you know, doing doesn't have that incorporated in it. So

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Speaker 2: you know, it doesn't have a plan. It doesn't have

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Speaker 2: a tram on the Hut Street main street upgrades. So

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Speaker 2: are we now going to spend all this money upgrading

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Speaker 2: Hut Street and then going to rip it all out

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Speaker 2: for a tram. I think that people would hate to

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Speaker 2: see the trees, so to see the trees leave. But

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Speaker 2: I do think that having a tram network around the

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Speaker 2: city would be amazing. But what is that going to

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Speaker 2: do with the congestion down South Terrace North terraces you

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Speaker 2: know already got one. I just think that the political

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Speaker 2: challenges and it will be overwhelming unless we have a

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Speaker 2: population of fifty thousand. So if that's delivers sure, But

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Speaker 2: if it's what it is currently, well, it's kind of

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Speaker 2: one of those nice to haves, and I'm not sure

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Speaker 2: if it's a realistic vision.

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Speaker 1: You reckon it would go down South Terrace, it go

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Speaker 1: down Halifax Street where the bus currently goes.

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Speaker 2: No, I guess it could.

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Speaker 1: Because there at least so.

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Speaker 2: In this plan, and this is well in this plan,

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Speaker 2: for example, we would need to come down West Terrace

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Speaker 2: to service the because what they want to do is

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Speaker 2: they want all the car dealerships there to turn themselves

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Speaker 2: into residential apartments. And unless you're going to do compulsory acquisition,

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Speaker 2: which they well absolutely against that, you know, they're just

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Speaker 2: going to try and invite people to do that. There's

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Speaker 2: going to they need to there's going to need to

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Speaker 2: be development in a long South Terrace as well, So

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Speaker 2: it could go down Halifax, it could go down South Terraf.

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Speaker 2: I haven't necessarily seen a detailed plan of what it

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Speaker 2: would look like, I mean, yeah, maybe you know, parts

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Speaker 2: of Halifax are like one way streets and you're going

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Speaker 2: to put a tram in there. I mean, does that

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Speaker 2: mean that we close it off the car cars as well?

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Speaker 2: Might mean yeah, yeah. I think that if it was easy,

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Speaker 2: we would have done it a long time ago. And

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Speaker 2: I think it's quite challenging versus a city like Melbourne

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Speaker 2: where they planned for it a long time ago. You know,

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Speaker 2: we could eat into Parklands for example. You could put

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Speaker 2: in a big chunk out of the Parklands and put

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Speaker 2: around the outside perimeter. We'd have an angry mob on it.

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Speaker 2: That I just feel like it's not properly considered and

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Speaker 2: I think that it's pie in the sky type of stuff.

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Speaker 1: All right, Henry, we'll see where it ends up. Thank

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Speaker 1: you for your time this morning, as always, no right,

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Speaker 1: thank you,