Patrick's Nomination Statement

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There are many and varied needs across Central Ward, from everyday issues such as cleanliness and residential street parking arrangements to larger challenges like public realm place design, commercial promotion, and the successful delivery of our local and international festivals and events. These imperatives are all interconnected if we want a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts!

The advent of work-from-home and related changing economic conditions has made it harder to attract people to the city and therefore harder for our local business to flourish. The future of Central Ward's business prosperity is tied to a affordable and happier local resident community. Enhanced amenity supports a flourishing residential population which in turn supports more resilient business. Each needs the other to thrive.

Where most candidates present themselves as being pro-resident or pro-business, I stand for both - for the sustainability and prosperity of our city's entire ecosystem. 

At present, the inner-metro suburbs are beating the CBD hands-down. To grow our business sustainability we must compete with metropolitan living. To be the preferred place to live, work and play we must overcome our competitive disadvantages.

The improvement of resident and business outcomes needs a reimagining of how the City of Adelaide Council engages with its locals. For the council to be truly functional, it needs Elected Members and administration with an ear to the ground, an ear to the evidence, and an ear to the people. I lend you my ears!

Too many times has progress been compromised by poor delivery and divisive political factional ideology.  I believe that bringing a series of pre-established, ideologically and personality-driven factionalised posturing on these issues insults and sells short our community. Ideologically driven policies are not serving Adelaide's future prosperity nor our community cohesion.

Rigid partisan thinking does not lend itself to efficient and effective solutions. Our local community wellbeing should not be the plaything of faceless political party backroom plotters and schemers, nor its Elected Members the mouthpiece of sectional economic interests that can afford the paid lobbyists for access and influence.

What I offer, if elected to represent your interests, is my commitment to improved consultation, pragmatic problem solving, and evidence-based decision making. I am a politically independent and unaligned candidate with the proven ability to work with a diversity of people and ideas for the greater good - for our 'common wealth'

You have seen me deliver this at-scale in the fight to Save The Cranker for the benefit of our local community, a specific local business operation, and the broader local music venue culture. I have runs on the board as a builder of coalitions. Our city businesses need an independent champion for the greater good. If elected I will work for the prosperity of all of Adelaide!

 Getting in the room in the first place, and then convincing representatives to act, were the two biggest hurdles faced by the Save The Cranker campaign. A vote for me ensures that the interests of the arts, heritage, sustainable development, and cultural vibrancy of our city will always be in the room from the get-go! You won’t need to convince me of their importance.

It’s time we had a voice in town hall that really understands our night life. The arts and entertainment generate more Australian GDP than sport and this ought to be supported by local council policy. Our artists, hospitality and performance venues pay a king's ransom in rates and must be given the support they deserve.

Adelaide has a proud reputation as a festivals and events city - to sustain this demands improvements in accessible and affordable modes of public transport. If elected, I will advocate for enhanced public transport options to reduce dependency on private modes of transport.

This includes advocating an immediate review of the number, timing, and placement of passenger loading zones to better reflect the increased public use of rideshare transport options. A taxi can pick up or drop off in a taxi zone or a passenger loading zone, but an Uber can only pick up or drop off in a passenger loading zone. Rebalancing the number of taxi zones and passenger loading zones will enhance public safety and assist city visitors and local residents to get around and get home after a great night in our city!

Central Ward is the prosperity engine room for the whole City of Adelaide. It is where jobs growth and the visitor economy must flourish. The last City of Adelaide boundary review saw an increase to four dedicated Central Ward Councillors. Given the importance of culture and the arts to our city's DNA, Town Hall and Central Ward would benefit from at least one of those elected bringing first-hand cultural economic understanding to policy development and performance monitoring on Council.

To further support our city's entertainment economy I will advocate for expanding the Live Music Loading Zone pilot project. It currently services just 14 venues. In December 2024, I co-authored a report to the state Minister for Planning regarding the Designated Live Music Venue (DLMV) list which identified 32 existing and 85 potential live music venues in the city. You can read that report here. Delivering Live Music Loading Zones to venues on the DLMV list supports our credibility as Australia's only UNESCO City of Music.

The DLMV List is due for release by the state government in 2025. You can contact the minister responsible here.

I am broadly supportive of the City Plan 2036. We should be delivering this in such a way that complements Adelaide's existing vibrant culture. A greener, cooler, safer, visually appealing, and pedestrian accessible city uplifts our residents and businesses alike.

Effective democracy depends on good decisions from grounded elected representatives motivated by community advancement, and equipped with mediation skills and ability to build consensus. Ultimately advancement is predominantly funded by rates revenue generated through the growing prosperity of the land economy and commercial rates. That growth must be sustainable over the long run and depends upon growing an increasingly diverse local resident population - both owner-occupiers and long-term renters.

The City of Adelaide services and infrastructure are funded by rates and levies (c $140m), but also from carparking - both ticketed on-street and via the council's own business enterprise, U-Park (c$48.5m). In addition to improvements to public and pedestrian modes of transport, a more prosperous Central Ward requires affordable and accessible car-parking. We must review our dependency on increased parking revenue.

We must also ensure that in any development of the city, our resident street parking capacity (via the permit system) is not further diminished. Existing residents should not need to fight for a park when they've paid up to $235/y for a permit. As your local councillor, I will be advocating for a more appropriate allocation of permit parks which aligns with the number and location of properties eligible for permits.

Development, progress, heritage, population growth, amenity and local economic prosperity are not mutually exclusive imperatives. They can and should be considered together in the interests of responsible development.

There are two notable entertainment precincts in Central Ward; East End and West End, and several other characterful dining areas; the Riverbank, Gouger Street/Chinatown, and Waymouth, Pirie, and Hutt Streets. There is also a concentration of heritage listed and character buildings in the same areas. The combined effects of urban gentrification and planning policy makes these locales attractive for speculative higher-density and high-rise redevelopment.

Developers are attracted to these areas to leverage existing vibrancy and cultural value to help sell their development. Unchecked by balanced planning policy and regulation, the practical effect of this is to undermine that value which eventually leads to its demise. The living cultural vibrancy is subsumed by characterless high-rise buildings.

This specific development approach is erroneously called 'borrowed value'.

When something is borrowed, it is normally returned. In these cases, the value and vibrancy is never returned. The value is stolen.

High density high-rise development does have a place in Adelaide's future, but without integrated design excellence it is incompatible with the cultural purposes of our heritage and entertainment areas.

Large parts of the western side of Central Ward, along the major east-west arterial streets, hold the greatest potential, instead, for medium-high density terrace and apartment living to sustain a goods and services economy and the jobs that help families realise their aspirations for a good life. These developments are of a complementary value to the existing vibrancy of our city in these areas, rather than borrowing or stealing it. There are also more affordable housing models such as land-lease that are huge interstate, but yet to reach the local housing market.

With an ageing population profile, the CBD needs to provide housing diversity for time-poor families with young children - and both low-income and cashed-up time-rich retirees. Our city needs to include affordable housing options for both students and the thousands of city workers in support services, retail, trades and professions.  

Continuing Use and Adaptive Reuse of Heritage Places

So as not to ‘kill the goose that lays the golden egg’, the development and evolution of prosperous and more sustainable communities calls for locality-specific spot-zoning with an eye to posterity. Successful heritage and character areas are enabled through careful ‘place-making’ - the curation of land-use mix and desired future character. 

• CONTINUING USE - a heritage place which has an original use-case that still exists today should be developed with respect to its heritage qualities and remain used for that ongoing original use-case heritage quality
  • e.g. a residency should remain a residency, a pub should remain a pub. They may be redeveloped for modern amenity, but the use-case should not change
• ADAPTIVE REUSE - a heritage place has an original use-case that no longer exists today may be developed with respect to its physical heritage qualities and be adapted for a new use-case
  • e.g. a factory for a defunct industry may be redeveloped with a change in use-case to a residency or a commercial operation

Many developers seek to use the adaptive reuse principle in the first instance. Continuing use should be a priority, so place purpose is respected and maintained where possible. The Crown and Anchor Hotel is a recent case in point.

Supporting Responsible Development is NOT Anti-Development!

Choosing to live in the CBD means compromising on private open space, but close access to the globally recognised and unique public open space that is the Adelaide Park Lands and city squares makes up for it in spades. City planners and Elected Members hold the key to promoting excellence in public realm design.

Central Ward's commercial rates and U-Park revenues contribute the greatest proportion of the entire City of Adelaide's operating revenue. This pays for the upkeep, safety, and amenity of the Adelaide Park Lands and city squares. It is our responsibility as the capital city to maintain them for the benefit of all South Australians. We are the stewards of a defining vision for an inclusive Adelaide that is nearly two centuries old.

Ensuring that the people’s park lands and city squares are not plundered for private for-profit development, the City of Adelaide must defend the Adelaide Park Lands from rapacious state government-supported private development. Enhancing and maintaining public access and amenity demands eternal vigilance. Hands off the Adelaide Park Lands!

I have a long track record of personal and professional disability rights advocacy, disability support, and promotion of accessibility measures that improve the lives of people with disability and older residents. I have first-hand experience; I am an autistic person and an NDIS participant.

If elected, I will be a responsible advocate for improved accessibility and inclusion, and a champion for greater understanding of neurodiversity, disability, and age discrimination that are endemic in our society.

I also know that my experience with disability in the city will not match your experience. We each have our own stories. If I do miss something, let me know and I will strive to make it right. You won’t need to convince me of the importance of intersectionality, inclusivity, and accessibility. Adelaide should be for all people.