The Committee for Adelaide is an economic think tank, committed to its namesake, the capital city of South Australia. Its board has a diverse membership, some of whom author occasional opinion editorial pieces for various media outlets. Its founding members are Ernst & Young and oil and gas company Santos Ltd, whose interests are represented on the committee's board by Chris Sharpley and Dimitra Ritossi respectively. The Committee's foundation was influenced by political lobbyist, Ian Smith who also sits on the Committee's board. It is chaired by Colin Goodall, who is a retiree from the oil and gas sector. As of 2016, its General Manager is Matt Clemow. Clemow is also a registered political lobbyist in South Australia.
Contents
Purpose
In 2016, General Manager Matt Clemow said of the Committee that "from the very start, one of the key purposes of the Committee for Adelaide was for industry to take a leadership role in important decisions. Our members have taken the view you can’t leave all the responsibility with governments… when there are difficult community discussions, industry should play an important role in the business debate as well as the public debate.”
History
The Committee was formed in 2013 and launched its first publication Earning our place in a global economy on 29 November that year. In November 2015, the Committee provided a $10,000 grant to artist business incubator The Mill to prevent its closure. Further publications include Attracting the People We Need (2013), Agenda for Growth (April 2014), Attracting the Business We Need (2014) and an annual prospectus.
Nuclear industrial advocacy
In 2016, the Committee for Adelaide established a working group on the topic of "Educational appropriateness". The group was tasked with "Targeting South Australia’s education offerings to the State’s priorities and opportunities such as health industries and the nuclear fuel cycle, as well as known business investment."
Following discussions with Kevin Scarce and the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission, the Committee for Adelaide organised a delegation to visit several nuclear industrial facilities in Europe in April 2016. According to Matt Clemow, the Committee's trip intended to visit France, England, Finland and possibly Sweden for members to develop an understanding of "the issues and opportunities involved in the nuclear fuel cycle with specific focus on safety, alignment with agriculture and tourism, and associated industry regulations.”
The Committee's tour aimed to "create a cohort of SA people who have experienced the operations of the nuclear fuel cycle and will be able to contribute to the public discourse... We’ve had the view since before the announcement of the Royal Commission that it was very important the committee has a view on uranium and it’s settled. We went to the Royal Commission and said ‘How can we help?’ We were very clear if there was community interface that’s needed, we’re happy to play a part in that.”
Membership of the delegation was to be capped at 10 and was likely to include representatives from Golder Associates, Mott MacDonald and Knight Frank. Non-Committee members who expressed interest in participating include MPs Tom Kenyon and Adrian Pederick. Peter Treloar was unable to join the trip, but said that several of his party colleagues were interested. Business SA CEO, Nigel McBride confirmed his attendance.
On 26 April, InDaily reported that the delegation visited the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant and Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository.
The delegation returned to Adelaide a day before the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission delivered its final recommendations to the Parliament of South Australia. On May 6, spokespeople for the delegation expressed their support for the establishment of nuclear waste storage facilities in South Australia.
Members & partner organisations
The Committee for Adelaide has three tiers of members, plus a number of partner organisations. As of April 2016, they are:
Board Membership
As of April 2016, the Committee's board membership includes: