Matters of Interest

Global Liveability Index

The Hon. C. BONAROS (15:29): Adelaide has officially cracked the top 10 most liveable cities in the world, this time claiming ninth place on the Economist Intelligent Unit's 2025 Global Liveability Index. We have seen a dramatic climb from 30^th place in 2022 to 11^th last year and now ninth. According to the EIU, Adelaide scored an impressive 95.9 per cent overall, with only slightly lower marks in the category of culture and environment compared to Melbourne and Sydney.

I think all of us who live in the Greater Adelaide area can agree that we are very lucky. We are very fortunate to call our beautiful city home. While I do not want to be the one to crash the government's celebration—because yes, it is a good headline and yes, we do love this city—that liveability might mean very different things, depending on who you ask.

In fact, it means different things for many people in South Australia, because while Adelaide might look fantastic in articles by prestigious news organisations listing the world's most liveable cities, we know it is a very different story on the ground. The continued appearance of Adelaide on influential lists such as the EIU Global Liveability Index and the applause such a feature generates point to a paradox in terms of how we assess the health of our state.

Try telling our ranking to the mum who has advised that she is living in a tent because her disabled child could not get priority for public housing; or to the thousands waiting for access to public health care; or to the young people and families who are working but have been priced out of rentals, home ownership and basic living expenses.

A city is not truly liveable if your postcode determines your access to a GP. It is not liveable if your rent—if you can afford to rent—absorbs more than half your income, and it is certainly not liveable if people are left behind by systems that should protect them. Liveability should mean the freedom to thrive, not just for the fortunate but for everyone. Whilst our leaders in parliament toast their champagne flutes for cracking the top 10, there exists an abundance of crises that just do not touch their lives; they touch the lives of Adelaide's most vulnerable.

Data from SA Health's July 2024 drug statistics in Adelaide, monitored by a wastewater analysis project commissioned by Drug and Alcohol Services South Australia (DASSA) reveals some trends seemingly contrary to the paradise narrative that we have heard about: the highest average nicotine use since 2017, highest methamphetamine level use since 2017, MDMA highest since 2020, cocaine highest since the report began, cannabis highest since the report began, ketamine a sharp increase in use, and an increase in the use of fentanyl.

This whilst crime at the heart of the city continues unabated. How liveable is a city if you cannot walk down the mall without seeing crime? I have put together what I call 'A tale of Alice's stories'. She works in the mall. She has worked there for years, and every day when she gets home she rings me and tells me what happened in the mall today. It is an ugly picture that confronts workers who are in Rundle Mall each and every day, and this idea that this is only happening out in our lower socio-economic areas—far north and far south and wherever in between—is very misplaced.

Last week, I visited a number of households in the Port Adelaide area, where people are living desperately below the poverty line. It was a sad day to see the sorts of issues that people are dealing with on a daily basis. It is a confronting one that we do not take into account when we look at things like a liveability index.

Cost-of-living expenses as well as rental and housing rates have skyrocketed, we know. Economic pressures are hitting everybody. Try asking someone who is sleeping rough on the streets of Adelaide what their thoughts of our city placement on that index is, and I think it is very different from the one we hear celebrated in here so often. It is a liveability I think being assessed here that is very loose in terms of its use of the word 'liveable'.

I could go on and on and list the factors impacting liveability in this state, but I will end by saying that we need to get real about people who are doing it really tough in South Australia. This is a great headline, but that is all it is: a headline.