From Tea Leaves to Ballot Papers: SA Matters Candidates Dianah Walter and Dr. Rod Pearce AM Chart an Independent Course for the Senate, While Political Analyst Robert Godden Brings His Expertise to the Table and Swap Meet’s Award-Winning “Ceiling Fan” Closes Our Show.
When Robert Godden joined us in 2018 for Episode 235, we read tea leaves to predict Steven Marshall’s election victory. Today, Robert returns with his tea expertise as we sit down with two Senate hopefuls – Dianah Walter and Dr. Rod Pearce AM – who are campaigning together under the “SA Matters” banner. While sipping tea, we explore how these candidates plan to navigate Canberra’s corridors while maintaining their commitment to South Australian priorities.
In a refreshing departure from party politics, Dianah and Rod share their journey from collaboration on women’s health initiatives to forming an unendorsed Senate ticket focused squarely on local issues. With Dianah’s background in regional advocacy and Rod’s decades of experience as a respected GP shaping national health policy, they present a compelling case for representation that transcends party loyalty.
There is no SA Drink Of The Week, this week.
And in the Musical Pilgrimage, we close the show with Swap Meet’s dreamy indie folk-rock track “Ceiling Fan” – an apt choice given the band’s own journey of rebranding from Sour Sob and striking out with a new identity, just as Dianah is doing with her political realignment.
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Running Sheet: SA Matters This Election
00:00:00 Intro
Introduction
00:00:00 SA Drink Of The Week
No South Australian Drink Of The Week, this week.
00:02:30 SA Matters: Behind the Independent Campaign
Under the banner “SA Matters,” Dianah Walter and Dr. Rod Pearce have formed an unendorsed Senate ticket focused squarely on South Australian interests. Their campaign slogan, “South Australia does matter,” encapsulates a commitment to prioritising our state’s needs above partisan politics.
“Our loyalty is to the work we’ve done together and to being an advocate for South Australia,” Rod explains, noting how party senators often face conflicts between state interests and party directives. He gives practical examples, questioning whether a Jackie Lambie Party candidate would truly prioritize South Australia over Tasmania, or if National Party members would defend South Australian water interests against upstream demands.
The pair first collaborated on breast screening initiatives, with Dianah supporting Rod’s population health strategy to increase participation rates beyond the concerning 55% level. That professional relationship has now evolved into a political partnership built on shared values and South Australian priorities.
This local focus extends to Dianah’s approach to campaigning. She recounts a telling moment when polling regional South Australians about current senators: “Only three were identified as someone they knew that was in politics, but couldn’t discern that they were a senator and they actually represented South Australia.” When asked if these voters would recognize their senators walking down the main street of Kadina, the answer was “No, but we would recognize you and we know Rod.” For Dianah, this highlighted both the disconnect in representation and the potential for their grassroots campaign.
During a recent outing, Dianah describes spontaneously approaching a couple of young women caring for a disabled woman on a jetty. Without introducing herself as a candidate, she simply asked about the accessibility of the jetty. The conversation developed into something “incredibly powerful.” Only at the end did she identify herself, saying “I didn’t want to make this political, but what can we do to help you?” Their response was striking: “In all of the last two years they’ve been coming to that place, not once had anyone stopped to talk to them.”
This grassroots approach was evident at their campaign launch when Dianah set aside her prepared notes after looking around the room. “I realize that I don’t need those words,” she recalls telling the audience, “You are not here because of me as a candidate for the Senate. You’re not here because of Rod… I believe you’re actually here because you’re here for you.”
Steve Davis notes this aligns perfectly with the StoryBrand framework where the voter is the hero and candidates are guides. Dianah agrees: “If we went in with the approach that we had all the answers, we are gonna fail from the outset. We can’t even begin to understand what some of the problems are until we sit down and listen.”
For Rod, this connection to community has defined his 40-year career as a GP, joining his father-in-law’s practice established in 1917. “I get drawn into conversations about, well, why isn’t my patient getting this treatment? Why can’t I get this? What’s the problem with this public hospital?” These personal advocacy experiences gradually led him to broader roles, including serving as AMA president and national GP chair, before deciding in 2014 to “come back and fix up the home ground.”
SA Matters on Facebook
01:03:30 Musical Pilgrimage
In the Musical Pilgrimage, we feature Murray Bridge’s own Swapmeet with Ceiling Fan.
Swapmeet began life as Sour Sob before a legal threat forced them to change their name. This journey of rebranding while maintaining artistic integrity mirrors our Senate hopefuls’ commitment to authentic representation.
The name “Swapmeet” carries special significance for lead singer Venus O’Broin, who got her current guitar at a swap meet – a grassroots connection that echoes our candidates’ approach to building their campaign from the ground up.
Swapmeet’s debut EP “Oxalis” (cheekily named after the genus of the sour sob plant) features today’s track “Ceiling Fan,” which captures the dreamy indie folk rock sound that earned them Best Song at last year’s SA Music Awards. Like our guests today, Swapmeet proved that sometimes starting fresh can be liberating while staying true to your roots.
Here’s this week’s preview video
There is no video this week.
SFX: Throughout the podcast we use free SFX from freesfx.co.uk for the harp, the visa stamp, the silent movie music, the stylus, the radio signal SFX, the wine pouring and cork pulling SFX, and the swooshes around Siri.
An AI generated transcript – there will be errors. Check quotes against the actual audio (if you would like to volunteer as an editor, let Steve know)
412-The Adelaide Show
[00:00:00] Steve Davis: Hello, Steve Davis here. Welcome to episode 412 of the Adelaide Show. I wanna take you back to 2018. That was the episode in which we read the tea leaves as part of episode 235. To determine who’d become premier, Nick Zenon, Steven Marshall, or Jay Weatherall. We got it right, by the way, you have to go back and listen to her, hear that in real time.
[00:00:25] Fast forward though to today, 2025 and Robert Godden, our political analyst, has returned with his tea as we sit down with two Senate hopefuls, Diana Walter and Dr. Rod Pierce, AM Am who are working together under the banner of SA Matters to get into the Senate to represent South Australia. We all drank tea while the conversation was happening, and the question is, will the tea leaves yielded by our discussion?
[00:00:54] All go well for these candidates. Time will tell. Meanwhile, um, you’ll also get to meet them before we finish. I. With the reigning best song of the South Australian Music Awards, it’s called Ceiling Fan by Swap Meet, and it turns out there’s some overlap between the band and our guests
[00:01:50] Caitlin Davis: in the spirit of reconciliation. The Adelaide Show podcast acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout South Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community. We pay our respects to their elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
[00:02:30] Steve Davis: In a political landscape where party loyalty, often overshadows regional advocacy, Diana Walter and Dr. Rod Pierce have emerged as essay matters, an Unendorsed senate ticket with a decidedly local focus, and to clear up any confusion straightaway. When we say Unendorsed Senate ticket, we’re talking about candidates who’ve grouped together to get that coveted box above the line on your ballot paper without being backed by a registered political party.
[00:02:58] So while Diana and Rod have branded themselves, as they say matters, you won’t actually see those words on your ballot. Just their names grouped together. Diana Fresh from her departure from the legalized cannabis party, and Rodda respected gp, whose voice has shaped national health policy, have joined forces at this time.
[00:03:16] When social media giants like Facebook face increasing scrutiny for their influence on our political discourse with their campaign slogan, south Australia does matter. A shared history of advocacy that includes women health initiatives. They’re promising representation that puts our state first. Today we’re cutting through the campaign slogans to explore how these two South Australian advocates plan to navigate both the corridors of Canberra and the digital highways that increasingly determine who reaches them.
[00:03:48] Diana and Rod, welcome to the Adelaide Show. Thank you very much. Thank
[00:03:51] Swapmeet: you. Thank you.
[00:03:52] Steve Davis: Alright, and Robert Godin, thank you for being here as our political analyst and tea purveyor. Always happy to be here. Steve, I wanna start with probably the most important question, uh, of our chat together. In a recent debate, it was said that if elected you would apply a distinctly South Australian lens to anything that came before us.
[00:04:14] Now, that is absolutely what the Constitution says. The job of a senator from SA is, so why is it special?
[00:04:24] Dr Rod Pearce AM: I guess because, uh, we think we can actually do it and our loyalty. Two other states isn’t going to stop us looking at South Australian issues. And so we’re concerned already that if, um, uh, the, the Jackie Lamby party was discussing something.
[00:04:41] Um, going back to Senator Haring’s Day when as a Tasmanian politician, he was a very strong advocate for Tasmania and John Howard gave some concessions to him that maybe were beneficial to Tasmania, but they wouldn’t be good for South Australia. And so if Jackie Lambie was, um. Talking to her Canada, Rex Patrick in South Australia and said, oh well it’s good for Tasmania, but sorry about South Australia.
[00:05:04] Would Rex actually disagree? So that’s one instance. Maybe with the National Party saying, uh, darling Harbor and Water matters, would they, uh, the South Australian Canada actually be listening to what’s important for South Australia and our river as opposed to maybe what, uh, uh, first Nation might say is good for the Darling Harbor?
[00:05:22] So those sort of issues, we are concerned that other parties will have a loyalty outside of South Australia, whereas our loyalty is to the work we’ve done together in the past and to basically being an advocate in South Australia.
[00:05:35] Steve Davis: I will pick up on that. ’cause when you two did collaborate previously on women’s health advocacy, particularly breast screening, was there a moment.
[00:05:44] When you were working together that you looked at each other and thought we could be the next Zenon and Patrick for South Australia. Did that ever occur to you?
[00:05:51] Dianah Walter: Oh, no. That’s a really the good question, but no, I don’t think so. I, it was a
[00:05:55] Dr Rod Pearce AM: population health issue that, um, we took up. So I come from El Peninsula and Diana was, uh, standing for Narangga and, um, I’ve worked in that area.
[00:06:03] Um, I had worked with, uh, a breast screen initiative called the Breast Screen Initiative. And, um, someone I’d worked with had spoke to the teals, had spoken to Mark Butler, spoken to Jed Kearney, spoken to people all around the country before the last election talking about population health and our unhappiness with a, a screening program that was only hitting 55%.
[00:06:21] So we saw there was a strategy to, to change that Diana and I worked together on saying she would be able to support it in the South Australian department. So we met with her, spoke to her at her launch and said, well, if you get in, um, we’d dep appreciate your support in this population health initiative.
[00:06:40] Dianah Walter: That sums it up pretty nicely. But I wanna go back to Steve, your original question around what it means, what a, what the role of a senator is and certainly, uh, what, uh, a South Australian senator would do. And I recently did a poll amongst, uh, a, a few people sitting around, uh, a, a table at a place on the York Peninsula.
[00:07:00] And I read out and some names and I said, can you please, uh, tell me if you’ve heard these of these people and you know what their roles are? And they included the names of our current senators and only three were identified as someone they knew that was in politics, but couldn’t discern that they were a senator and they actually represented South Australia.
[00:07:21] So I think that was really quite compelling. And I took an another step and I said. Uh, do you think that you, you know the name, but would you recognize them if you walk, if they walked down the main street of, of, uh, Kadena or the main street of, uh, Yowie, which is not really a main street, but would they recognize those people if they weren’t emblazoned with a logo of a party?
[00:07:45] And if they were just in their general garb and one of them said, yeah, nah, and the other one said, no, but we would recognize you and we know Rod. And that to me was really, really compelling. And I thought, wow, okay, we can work with this. And that also comes back to just simple representation. But it’s also not about, uh, rod and I and you went back and you, you used the name Xenophon.
[00:08:12] I would rather people. And I’m gonna give you an example. I wanna go back to the day that we, um, decided to put together our launch for this campaign. And I had some words written like you have today. And that introduction was spot on. And I, I went through my words and I had them pretty much, um, rehearsed.
[00:08:30] And I looked around the room at Rod’s practice in where we had the launch, and I put the paper down and I, I said, I’m, I’m here today. And I had some words to, to, to, um, speak with. And I, I look around now and I realize that I don’t need those words because there was probably 90% of the people in that room I hadn’t met.
[00:08:57] I didn’t know. And then I, I said to them, I said, oh. You are not here because of me as a, a candidate for the Senate. You’re not here because of Rod, although some of you may be because they, they knew Rod really well. I believe you’re actually here because you’re here for you. And you can see a different path in terms of democracy in this state and good on you.
[00:09:18] So this is about you and this is where we’re expanding our, um, reach and we’re engaging with people and not saying. You know, what is it that, are we gonna do this and we are gonna do that, but what is it that you need? And even yesterday, uh, we, we were at a, an event and had some really great conversations.
[00:09:39] And then after we, rod went in one direction and I went west towards SE four and just walked down the jetty and just stopped and talked to a, um, a couple of young girls who were caring for a disabled woman who was in a, in a chair. And I just asked them about how they found the accessibility of the jetty.
[00:10:00] And then the conversation just developed into something incredibly powerful and didn’t introduce until the very last minute before I walked away who I was and what it was about, and said, I didn’t wanna make this political, but. What can we do to help you? And they’d never, they said to me in all of the, the last two years they’ve been coming to that place.
[00:10:20] Not once had anyone stopped to talk to them.
[00:10:23] Steve Davis: That’s a look. There’s two things to unpack there. One, the fact that you walked up and spoke to people, we don’t tend to do that in our society anymore. If I remember growing up, my dad was a builder, and when Marian was first, sadly when they ripped all those vineyards out and started building, we did know every single person around the block.
[00:10:46] Uh, the family, doctor, rod. Um, I remember as a 6-year-old walk, walking the seven blocks to school by myself for some reason. I decided to come home at lunchtime one day, got lost, saw the family practice went. They all knew me. Then they rang mom. She wasn’t home. They rang the neighbor, et cetera. Isn’t it sad in a way that you’ve got to be a candidate for politics for this dynamic to be at play?
[00:11:15] It’s just not normalized otherwise. Yeah, I
[00:11:17] Dr Rod Pearce AM: guess that that. It has been my journey over the last 40 odd years when as a GP and joining my father-in-law’s practice that’s been established in 1917. So we’ve been in the eastern suburbs, this area. He came up to, uh, Atherton in 19 7 67 to, because this is where all the children were been born, and they were delivering babies.
[00:11:38] So I joined his practice and saw that one-on-one conversation and advocacy. And then I get drawn into conversations about, well, why isn’t my patient getting this treatment? Why can’t I get this? What, what’s the problem with this public hospital? What’s the problem with the private system? And as an advocate, you get asked to say, well, why don’t you do something about it and step up and do something about it?
[00:11:56] So, um, president of the a MA and then gp, uh, chair nationally for, uh, six years. So I was elected nationally on. Uh, national committees. And in 2014, I thought, well, I’ve gotta come back and fix up the home ground. So working here and in the country to establish and get our practices working. And it’s like, well, somehow you need to be doing both.
[00:12:16] You need to have that, uh, 15, 1, 15 minute, one-on-one conversation, which I have with 20 or 30 people every day who have looked after five generations and know their history. And as the other doctors in the practice say, you seem to know everyone, it’s like, well, you know, we’ve set up a relationship and I know people, but that’s gotta translate into some sort of effective advocacy.
[00:12:36] And that’s what I’ve been doing and quietly sort of doing. And it’s like, let’s do some more of that.
[00:12:42] Steve Davis: And there’s just one other thing, or the other two I wanna unpack before Robert, uh, jumps in, Diana, you mentioned with those notes you said. I don’t need to say this ’cause you’re not here for me. You’re not here for Rod, you’re here for yourselves.
[00:12:55] Can I say in my day hat in marketing, we have in the last year come across the StoryBrand framework, um, by Donald Miller. And the great insight that brings is that, and this is where not just brands, but also politicians and candidates make the mistake. You are not the hero, the customer or the voter is the hero.
[00:13:19] Your job is to be the guide. And I think to have that grasp so early is one of the keys for unlocking the kingdom because we, we are interested in ourselves and you are there to facilitate that journey.
[00:13:36] Dianah Walter: That’s, that’s true. And may I just before Rod it, you’ve nailed it because. If we, if we went in with the approach that we had all the answers, we are gonna fail from the outset.
[00:13:48] We can’t even begin to understand what some of the problems are until we sit down and listen and, and understand what those concerns are. And yeah, it’s, you’ve, yeah. You’ve nailed it. But it, I had to be brave and courageous ’cause it would’ve been a lot easier for me to read my notes.
[00:14:04] Steve Davis: Absolutely. Mm. And I’ll take the con Yeah.
[00:14:07] The, uh, the correction that I was reading notes at the beginning. That’s all right. Robert, what were you,
[00:14:11] Robert Godden: uh, yeah, look, I, one of the things I wanted to mention was, uh, now I’m very familiar with Rod. We’ve never met, but I’ve been an avid listener to a, b, c radio since I was 18 years old in the eighties.
[00:14:21] ’cause I’m odd. And, um, I’ve just heard your voice so many times and I think that, um, the trust that can build up, mm. Uh, by me via media that you can actually hear or see the person. So even though radio gets, uh, described as a legacy media, um, to a certain extent, I, I really feel that that’s, uh, that’s a huge asset in this climate.
[00:14:43] We don’t necessarily believe what we read, um, you know, on Facebook, but we certainly believe what we hear. On the radio. And I think that’s a, that’s an interesting discussion. We’ve talked about the power of Facebook. I wonder how much of that can be, can be eaten away at with, uh, with actually traditional media.
[00:15:01] Dr Rod Pearce AM: Yeah, I guess it’s a challenge for me too, having listened to the A, BC grown up, um, in the country listening to the A BC, uh, coming from a classical music family listening to a b, c radio. Um, I listened to the A, B, C listening to the national radio today. And one of the people we’ve spoken to, Melissa Fisher, um, with uh, anti-poverty, uh, network, had a meeting for candidates.
[00:15:23] Um, no liberal labor candidate came, but to a few other candidates, Sid, and we couldn’t get there, but we were talking to her yesterday and. Just some of the language and the um, uh, amazing ability to articulate what it is to be poor. Such fantastic lines as saying, well, I didn’t grow up, uh, when I was young, thinking one day I wanna grow up and be poor.
[00:15:43] Um, just that sort of thing. People aren’t poor because they choose to be, and poverty is a trap that leads to isolations and so many flow on effects. And her marvelous response to the covid dollars she got where she joined a gym, got a, a diabetes under control, and didn’t eat an iron infusion because she was eating better.
[00:16:01] I mean, so that’s someone who’s saying, look, I’m not. Stopping anyone else from progressing. I’m not jealous that someone else achieves Australia’s big enough for everyone. But what about looking after people below the poverty line? Just a powerful thing and to hear, and that was on a, b, c radio, um, this morning in the news, and I’m thinking, well, at least the A, b, C is picking up what’s really happening.
[00:16:19] Yes. I
[00:16:19] Steve Davis: think I misheard you initially when you said you listened to the, the radio in the country and I thought you said, Hey, B, C And I think that’d be a nice way for them to rebrand.
[00:16:28] Dianah Walter: Well, actually, can I just, I just wanna jump in there. I think this is a really great segue. Um, the A, B, C have a, uh, a, a, well, it’s, so every year they have a, a, it’s a competition called Haywire.
[00:16:40] Yeah. Where young people are able to talk about mental health and other issues in their communities, uh, regional communities, and some of the stories that come out of those, uh, those. Uh, although yeah, those communities are just really quite compelling and they’ve changed lives, but I wanted to also talk about the importance of, of you talk about legacy, uh, media.
[00:17:03] We’d quite frankly be stuffed with our, our radios. And, and I’ll give you an example. Uh. I, I drive thousands of kilometers every year and it’s, it’s not, I can’t always get internet connection and, but I, I can tune into my local radio. There’s reliability. Uh, when we recently on the, on the, the yp, we lost power for nearly 24 hours and I’m a country fire service volunteer.
[00:17:27] So not only did that impact, um, communications, you know, our air conditioning and just activities of daily living, uh, after a period of time our mobile phone towers went down and we had no connection as emergency services volunteers as well. But I got me little radio out, we transistor out of the cupboard that dad gave me many years ago, and I turned on and tuned into A, B, C and I knew what was going on.
[00:17:52] So there, there needs to be a real. Um, a deeper understanding of the importance of, uh, regional radio in particular. And, and don’t forget, not everyone has digital literacy and not everyone can tune into or has connections through the internet to listen to things. So, yeah, it’s a really, really important point.
[00:18:10] I’m glad you raised it,
[00:18:11] Steve Davis: but they, they may not have the digital literacy, but, uh, I used to work in radio and Matt Ford I, I worked with, and he reminded me one day when I was almost late with the news bulletin that prior preparation prevents poor performance. So my, there’s
[00:18:24] Dianah Walter: another p in there somewhere too.
[00:18:25] I reckon.
[00:18:26] Steve Davis: My advice, Diana, in your situation is you must download the Adelaide Show. Before you go traveling ’cause Well, I
[00:18:34] Dianah Walter: will now. Yes. Thank you. ’cause I have been downloading Yes, Richard Fi and, and Sarah Kioski’s conversations. But this is gonna be much better, isn’t it? Correct. Yes, yes. Thank you indeed.
[00:18:42] ’cause it’s local content.
[00:18:44] Steve Davis: Now look, um, we have skewed a little rod thus far, so we’re coming back to you now. ’cause you described there was a specific issue that made you reassess your position with the legalized cannabis party and without. Dragging us through all the political quicksand. What was it about party politics that ultimately felt at odds with your commitment to South Australia?
[00:19:05] Dianah Walter: In a nutshell, my view around adult use legalization of cannabis hasn’t changed. And I’ll support that to the cows come home. But what it come down to was, uh, my, I, I, I wasn’t able, I, I was led to believe that I could actually, um, create more opportunities for South Australians and I was starting to activate my networks around jobs and skills and primary production and industrial hemp and a whole range of other things.
[00:19:32] And. I might’ve, I might’ve got it wrong and maybe I lost, I lost track of what the aim was. But in doing that and in, uh, raising the profile of the legalization of adult use cannabis, I wanted to use a, a local company to produce some branded, um, collateral. Let’s not call it merchandise. ’cause I didn’t want them to pay for it.
[00:19:53] I wanted them to, um, invest in what they could. And, and there was far more value in someone walking around wearing a, a branded piece of clothing than contributing to a campaign fund. And essentially, uh, it was, I was given advice that that really should have been done out of the Eastern states and not South Australia.
[00:20:13] And I, that didn’t sit well with me. And I essentially just went, let me think about this. I’m going to. Give that some thought. And then I, I went back and I said, look, I, I can’t, my loyalty to South Australia is far stronger than anything else that I can imagine. And, um, if I can’t use this business and we can’t, um, generate interest for the cause using local, and, and I used, and I actually said, well, you know, indeed the, the, the role of a senator is to fight for their state.
[00:20:45] And if I can’t do that, well, you know what, you’ve lost me. Um, and I was very respectful and no malice, no malice at all. But, uh, I quick is probably affiliation with the political party in history. Only a matter of weeks, but I still, I still support what they’re doing. And the thing is, adult use cannabis legalization is something that a lot of parties are, uh, are okay with now.
[00:21:07] So. It’s kind of not even a point of difference anymore.
[00:21:11] Steve Davis: Well, that’s true, but interesting as a microcosm of society. I am, I would consider myself an advocate. I’ve got no interest in taking it. I did smoke it twice when I was in my twenties. Sounds like an old Who, who was the politician who said I, Clinton.
[00:21:26] Clinton. Inhale. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but Robert is the other end of the spectrum. You, you are, you are not involved. So what, Robert, do you wanna eloquently state why? And, and how, what this means from a, a perspective of the electorate as a whole.
[00:21:43] Robert Godden: Yeah, it, it’s interesting because, um, you know, I’m, I’m obviously a below the line voter, like 10% of the population, like everyone should be, um, less than 10%.
[00:21:52] I think
[00:21:52] Dr Rod Pearce AM: certainly what I’ve trained my family to do. Yeah. And one time I voted, one time I voted above the line, they said, how come you got out so quick? ’cause they were all spending longer in there. So I’ve done it once in the life,
[00:22:02] Steve Davis: Bob, build my vote.
[00:22:05] Robert Godden: It’s the joy of our democracy, the way, the way we vote for, for upper houses.
[00:22:08] And, um. And so I always go through, uh, and, and, and I often think Australian democracy is based on the person who the least people have a problem with, gets in. Uh, you know, it’s, it’s really, it’s not, it’s not about who’s the best, it’s about who’s the least worst in, in most of our opinions,
[00:22:26] Steve Davis: because I start at the end and work my way
[00:22:28] Robert Godden: back.
[00:22:28] That’s right. Yeah. And, um, top one, bottom one. Top one. So if, if people wanna do things that I don’t agree with, they tend to put ’em there. I also, uh, like to know individual candidates. So for example, were I to, um, well, well, at some point I will, I will be obviously putting a number next to both of your names, and while I understand that Diana’s number one on the ticket, um, I would definitely be swapping that around.
[00:22:51] And because from my personal point of view, firstly I’ve got, uh, a, a trusted voice that I know from decades on the radio. Absolutely. And from second point of view, I have, uh, a very much a strong view that the legalization of cannabis isn’t the correct path. Yeah. Um, so I think that as. As we know candidates and as we learn about them and, and their beliefs, we can respectfully disagree with them.
[00:23:16] Mm-hmm. You know, it is not un I I think a lot of people do what I do too, which is when the major parties you might, like, for example, at some point I’ll get to the liberals and there’s, there’s no way that they’re number one candidate, Alex Antich is gonna be anywhere near the top of my list. Right. He, he is, uh, definitely from my point of view, the, the, the least best option of, of the liberals, let alone of anyone else.
[00:23:38] And so I think that. I think that the opportunity to, to know a candidate is useful, but I think that that is a double-edged sword. It is. ’cause I might decide essay matters sounds like a good idea. But then in, in my decision to reverse, the candidates might actually, uh. Count against you. Yeah. So it really is an interesting question.
[00:23:59] It’s how much do you, how much do you, um, you also, can I congratulate you? Most people don’t change parties till after they get elected. You’ve actually That’s right. Yeah. Run up. I think that’s quite novel.
[00:24:09] Dr Rod Pearce AM: Um, but it’s also one of the criticism we’ve had of the other parties and the question we asked on a previous debate about, uh, where’s the loyalty and who’s gonna stay maybe with Clive Palmer or, um, uh, whichever party they start with.
[00:24:21] And so, um, but I guess we don’t. Have that concern about our relationship. Um, and, um, we believe it’s a constructive, and, and all of those questions, um, in the end, you’ve gotta decide where the number goes. You can’t put ’em a one in two numbers. Um, so, so, um, the way we’ve done it is, um, I. Someone who’s had slightly more experience at the frontline campaigning, uh, like Diana and her, um, running for the rung.
[00:24:49] Um, so, uh, I’ve been on the list in, in the upper house in the state election before with the liberals, but I got, uh, put down so low that it was never gonna be an option. Um, and, um, I don’t think, uh, I was treated. With the respect I thought, um, health issues deserved because it was factionalized more than I expected.
[00:25:08] And, and that’s politics. And so, um, my learning experience is to say, well, what’s the best way that I can do the advocacy? And is it sitting in my chair and looking after people I’ve known for three or four generations? Or is it about, um, and I think it’s trying to do both. So that’s why I’ve stepped up again.
[00:25:23] Well,
[00:25:24] Steve Davis: in a heartwarming way, at least, you know, which ballot paper was Robert’s when you see them go past, yes.
[00:25:28] Dianah Walter: Well, yes. I would like to give Robert scrutiny the
[00:25:31] Robert Godden: scrutiny can, can give you, give you a note and say, yes, we’ve just seen Robert. But,
[00:25:35] Dr Rod Pearce AM: but that’s a, I think, important political point we think is, uh, time has come is Australians are saying, well, I don’t want.
[00:25:41] Liberal. So 30% liberal, 30% labor, but 30% of the community, I think is saying there’s a protest vote. And I guess, um, allowing for people a choice that we think could be good for them says a protest vote, even if you still wanna vote for liberal or for labor, um, a protest vote to say, I haven’t put it in the major parties my first and second, and then put your other votes in.
[00:26:02] So if we’re not in parliament, the still message goes to those, um, parties and say, look, you didn’t get 30% of the first preferences. You only got 27% of the first preferences, and others were least worst options.
[00:26:16] Dianah Walter: Yeah, I, I would like to give Rob Robert some, uh, comfort and to let you know that, uh, the, the cannabis, uh, matter is that it’ll be legalized in and.
[00:26:27] This is not our main agenda now. And, um, the health element of what we are doing is far more important. Might be quite aspirational, but I’d like to think that, um, rod and I could actually get a quota each, or with preferences we could get to that point. So I’m, I’m, I’m delighted and I think a lot of people, um, will vote in the way that you will as well, because quite rightly, Rod’s equally as capable and together we make a, a fine team, but this is democracy and this is the way the system has been set up.
[00:26:56] But please don’t think that, um, we are going to be pushing the C word.
[00:27:02] Robert Godden: I think that, um, I think that it is an interesting situation. You, you’re looking to dislodge the, the third place liberal and you’re also then looking to dislodge Sarah as a young Greens.
[00:27:11] Dr Rod Pearce AM: Yeah, well, or greens or Rex Patrick with is probably the main, the seat.
[00:27:15] Yeah. So there’s two seats that are up for grabs, essentially two Two and then two up for grabs. Yeah.
[00:27:21] Robert Godden: Yeah. So I think that, I think that you’ve, you’ve definitely. Got your sight set there. I think that the, the subset of US voters that do vote below the line are becoming increasingly, uh, invested in how we do it.
[00:27:35] Mm-hmm. Like, like, well, that’s good for, it used to be that you just did it sort of party lines, but you just didn’t agree that, you know, hunters and shooters should be ahead of greens on the liberal part or whatever. Um, but I think that people are getting more and more invested. I, I certainly know that I have discussions on online where people say, oh yes, well this is what I think and, and this is, uh, and have you heard about this party?
[00:27:54] And this, this is what they do, which I think is, is really, you know, a great use of the technology. And I, I think you really do like everyone in your situation’s feeling positive at the moment. Everyone’s sitting around a table with a, whose name’s on there was thinking you, I I can do this.
[00:28:09] Dianah Walter: Well, if they’re not, they’re not, they’re not in there for the right reason.
[00:28:11] They’re gonna be in there for the right reason. Yeah.
[00:28:13] Robert Godden: And, um, and it’s how you share those conversations. Yeah. How you, how your conversation share is shared with, with the people. So, so when this story goes out, for example, um, if, if it captures people’s imagination, they’ll share it. Mm. And, uh, and that is the great good that social media could do.
[00:28:29] Steve Davis: Yes. Now, we’ve mentioned team, we’ve mentioned party, et cetera before. I do wanna ask, just from a, the rationale of the Adelaide Show is to put the, the spotlight on the passion of South Australia. And here you two, but it’s not just you two. What, can you just take us behind the curtain. What’s the logistics involved in mounting a campaign like this?
[00:28:49] ’cause most of us don’t get to see it. How many people do you need? What sort of roles do you have? And then. How do you then keep everybody in line when there’s no party discipline?
[00:28:59] Dr Rod Pearce AM: Well, can, can I start with saying what, what we are not doing? And then I’ll let Diana go down to, but the, the stories we hear that you have to buy a seat like you hear of, um, uh, teal movements and senators in a CT spending $2 million and people coming from outside, putting money on the table to.
[00:29:16] To win. Um, certainly in the lower house you probably need a team to be door knocking and um, uh, making sure everyone actually hears, uh, you know, face-to-face conversation. So, um, we are not into, um, outside money coming in and giving us, um, millions of dollars. So that’s not a practicality and, and part of our, um, thinking is that that shouldn’t be.
[00:29:39] What we’re doing. So it’s about grassroots, but the question I’ve had, and certainly the population health program with breast screening that I’ve been involved in, um, I spent 10 years working on that and we haven’t been able to shift the dial, although one of the things we’ve been asking for has happened.
[00:29:53] Um, there’s, uh, bowel cancer screening that hasn’t happened. There’s men’s health issues also that, um, need to be promoted. So that’s sort of grassroots, long time pushing. So, um, this is really in my mind a challenge is to see whether from bottom up you can actually make a difference or whether you do need million dollars.
[00:30:09] Is Australia about millions of dollars coming in? So we are not doing that. So where the other, so okay. Yeah. So what, thank you. What are you doing?
[00:30:17] Dianah Walter: So what, what transpired And when I left my, my former, uh, my former plight, I had no intention of doing what I’m doing and sitting here today, I was going to, okay, Diana, just that’s enough.
[00:30:33] Just go back to work and just. Get on with life. And I had a flurry of people around me who were, I realized again, they weren’t there because of the, the issue. They would be there because it was me. And I was willing to listen because the people that were rallying around us weren’t rallying around for the legalization of a plant.
[00:30:53] They were rallying around for economic opportunities, for education, for jobs, for the in, um, the revenue that would be generated like we see in other countries. They were in it for them, wasn’t about me. It wasn’t about the party. And they said, Diana, you really have to do something. You need to keep moving and your heart is in South Australia.
[00:31:12] You’ve demonstrated that by doing what you did and that Right. Uh, enter stage left rod. Yes. And, uh, a very, very short, succinct conversation. It was like, okay, we can do this. And my little business is called regions matter. And the natural, um, transition was. South Australia matters. And we coined it in a, in a matter of moments, and the partnership was born and the people that had rallied around for my former two campaigns, uh, decided to stay on board.
[00:31:47] And they have brought with them like-minded people, and a lot of them have come from backgrounds that honestly they don’t engage in politics. Uh, in fact, I can, there’s a woman that helped me out during the. Uh, the Narangga campaign and I hosted an event, uh, on International Women’s Day a few years ago, and people came from all around the, the region and she came up to me and, and said, hello, my name is, and, and we had a bit of a chat and I said, I’m interested.
[00:32:15] Why are you here? She said, I’ve never once in my life been involved in politics. And I heard you speak the other day on the radio, a, b, c, local radio. And she said, I wanted to know more about you. So I’ve driven an hour to be here today. And when she left that International Women’s Day morning tea, not only did she leave feeling quite enthusiastic, she took call flutes.
[00:32:37] She took core floats. She took a t-shirt and she stood in labor, a liberal, sorry, excuse me, liberal heartland in a, a very, very small regional community on the edges of the electorate all day with her. Um, children had handed out how to vote cards at that polling booth that only took about a hundred votes, but she did it because she believed in it.
[00:32:57] That is powerful. Yeah. It, it really, so we, we have those people with us now. It is,
[00:33:01] Robert Godden: I think you can take some comfort from the fact that Clive Palmer conclusively prove that you can’t buy votes at the last
[00:33:07] Dr Rod Pearce AM: election. Well, that, that’s, that’s what’s sort of interesting and I think goes around in your head when you hear a story and it’s like a hundred million dollars and you can possibly get one seat.
[00:33:14] Um, and but the, the fact that, you know, dollars are needed to amount a campaign is a challenge. And, and I guess you can, um, think all you like is this really democracy, but if it’s a reality, so we’ve gotta live in a democracy. We gotta live with a reality. So that’s our challenge. But we are hoping for bottom up rather than top down.
[00:33:33] Yeah.
[00:33:33] Steve Davis: Well on that actually brings it together nicely. There’s a wonderful book called Careless People that’s just been, uh, published, uh, by. McMillan, I think, uh, Sarah Wynn Williams is the author she worked at, um, Facebook for many years, and there’s some really interesting insights into that world. First of all, them, uh, she alleges having Facebook staff embedded within the Trump 2016 campaign to help them with advertising algorithms, microtargeting, et cetera.
[00:34:05] Um, I did hear that the same thing was offered to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, but she turned it down. Um, but what they did upon reflection was understand that by fermenting descent in the populace, by giving, helping the algorithm create these echo chambers where people heard what they wanted to hear.
[00:34:30] There was a dear friend yesterday who was just with some people down the southeast, decent, busy, normal people who. Chewed her ear off for ages. How the la bush fires were part of a grand conspiracy to create a brand new living area, and any homes with blue roofs were to be spared, et cetera. This is the outworking of the Facebook slash meta algorithm X uh, YouTube.
[00:35:02] These are prevailing headwinds of toxicity that every candidate has to deal with. And, uh, we’ve seen you can’t just throw checkbooks at this. What, what goes through your mind? I wanna
[00:35:15] Dianah Walter: give you a live example of what happened to me. And, and I love that analogy of, um, you know, the headwinds. I, I like a following sea.
[00:35:22] If I’m gonna go sailing, I’d much prefer the spinnaker up on a following sea. Um, and, and that, that following is evident in the, the grassroots that we’re, we are seeing. But what happened when, um, we decided that, okay, we are, we are doing this, and, and the first thing someone says, you need to have a Facebook page.
[00:35:39] You need to have a website. And we can talk about that a little bit later on. Um, and in the process of registering, uh, a Facebook page as a political candidate, and rightly so, there are some really stringent, uh, rules and regulations around that. So I went through the process and I met her, wanted me to update, uh, upload my passport for id, and I didn’t.
[00:36:01] I did use my driver’s license, which still didn’t feel right. But interestingly enough, the minute that that page went live in the public domain and the, um, the description was political candidate, and I’d had the, the impression that said that it was, you know, written and authorized or authorized by, and all that was there within nowhere word ever lie.
[00:36:24] Three seconds in my feed, I had Trump, Elon Musk, lots of right wing, um, extremist feed, um, things coming into that feed. And I, I was just gobsmacked. And then in the very next breath, I yelled out to my partner, can you believe this is happening? And I said something and I used a word. And then that particular party popped up in my feed as well.
[00:36:50] So I said, meta, you’re listening and I’d block your ears. So that actually happened to me, and that is actually, it’s concerning and it’s, it, it’s, it’s more than concerning because. Uh, my, my, my children and, and my grandchild about to be born, they’re gonna be brought into this, and this is of our generation’s doing, and we’ve, we, we should be saying no.
[00:37:15] And I just, on that book, there was a really great quote that I looked at. One of the reviews, uh, Sarah Wynn Williams exposes both the personal and political fallout when boundless power and a rotten culture take hold. That’s exactly what we are seeing. It’s a rotten, rotten culture, and why can’t we just get back to decency and humanity?
[00:37:33] It’s really, I think it’s that simple, and we’re seeing that in the people that we’re communicating with.
[00:37:38] Steve Davis: Mm. And someone, I forget who it was, um, talked about the fact that there is actually a decent majority out there, but they’re just generally quiet and it’s the noisy vessels that make all the, get all the attention.
[00:37:51] Swapmeet: Mm.
[00:37:52] Robert Godden: Yeah. I think it, it’s interesting because I, I, I’m reflecting on the fact I’m about to turn 60 and I think that for my whole life there was this. Implicit concept that things were gonna get better. Mm-hmm. You know, technology was getting better, medicine was getting better, and, and public discourse was getting better and, and, you know, we were getting better at being people.
[00:38:12] And then, um, I, I’ve lately started to think perhaps. We had a little bit of a mini golden age, and in actual fact, we are, uh, we, we are not, we, we can’t assume that things are gonna be better in, in six months, 12 months. Uh, and two, you know, we, we just had this trend for so long. We, we had it too. Good. And now we’re seeing the, the opposite.
[00:38:33] Yeah. I,
[00:38:33] Dr Rod Pearce AM: I guess, um, we
[00:38:34] Dianah Walter: can influence that, can’t we? Yeah. Well, we
[00:38:36] Dr Rod Pearce AM: we’re hoping to, but I guess, uh, I see the things that go wrong in that sector, um, on a day to day. Um. Um, sort of work basis as I talk to people who on, on paper, everything should be good and it should be equal and fair. And they’re telling me of all of the, um, things that have gone wrong.
[00:38:54] So, robo debt, um, things that have fallen out with Centrelink trying to live on, um, uh, uh, below. Poverty, income. Um, people trying to get jobs, help debts. Yeah, people trying to get, um, jobs because they’re sick. Um, someone with epilepsy who, um. Gets told he can’t have a job, but he gets another job in two weeks time and then he can’t be on disability because he’s well and he’s not.
[00:39:17] All of the contradictions, all the anomalies I see. And I talk to people on a personal basis and, and that’s been some of my behind the scenes advocacy is when I go into bat. So someone who had a car accident and was half paralyzed, it’s a hemiplegic. Um, he, uh, was sort of shunted out of privatized, uh, uh, waterworks became SA water.
[00:39:38] And he was moved aside and was about to lose his job. And I was able to help him win a, a case, um, against his disability. ’cause he basically got, first of all, he was wandering around looking after the reservoirs and he didn’t have the capacity to do that. And then he was put in a job that was non-productive and he said, I wanna be useful.
[00:39:56] And so, um, when he eventually left, we were able to get support and compensation for the fact they moved him out. So I guess I’ve seen those things go wrong on a database. I’ve seen them in the system, I see them in the health system. I see them in the, um, social support systems. I’ve seen them in domestic violence.
[00:40:11] All of those things that shouldn’t happen. I see. On a personal level, and that’s a lot of the work I’ve done behind the scenes in the past is to help individuals. And it’s like, well, if I help one person and, and that’s, that’s always a population health challenge is, um, what’s good for the population. Um, we do that with drugs funding.
[00:40:28] It’s like, is it good for everyone? Where’s that magic thing where most people benefit? Um, where do you cut it off? What’s value for money? Is it value for the community? Is it value for the politicians? Is it value for the individual? All of those discussions I have on a daily basis. And so it’s trying to transform some of that one-on-one conversation into all of South Australia conversation.
[00:40:48] Robert Godden: Yeah, and I think that the whole, um, the whole, uh, need to, um, to communicate, right? We, we’ve discussed, so, so let me ask you both this question just to put the cat amongst the pigeons. So now Rod, you’ve previously been a liberal candidate, but if either of you was offered a, um, an A LP or liberal high spot on the ticket opportunity to join the Senate, um.
[00:41:15] I’m gonna assume you both turn it down, but I, I wanna know why. I wanna know what are the things that, that are just a step too far for you with the major parties?
[00:41:23] Dr Rod Pearce AM: Well, um, that was put to me before, um, that, uh, very few doctors in parliament. There’s a couple now, I think there’s six in the federal parliament now, which is good that people have had some, um, experience in the health sector in the South Australian department.
[00:41:38] There was none or there might have been a physio. So, so it was put to me that maybe standing, um, would give some credibility and provide some insight into the health sector if I was, um, I’m not expecting to be offered the Health Minister’s job, but I guess if it was, um, I would seriously look at that. Um.
[00:41:56] But I’m not expecting that. But, um, I am not sure South Australia would miss out if I was, um, health minister for Australia, but I don’t think that’s coming. But, um, that, that’s the sort of hypothetical that I might have to look at. But, um, anything less than that, it’s about, well, I. How am I actually gonna exert influence?
[00:42:14] And as soon as you put your, um, uh, brand to a coattails that you’ve got an obligation to, I think as a compromise. So South Australia’s been our focus. Um, I’ve certainly worked, um, when I was, uh, president of the Eastern Medical Association and asked to, um, crank up and form Medicare, um, a division of general practice.
[00:42:35] Um, I said, well, I’m comfortable looking after eastern suburbs and city and a bit of southern suburbs, but I dunno, the rest of South Australia. But I’ve been then asked to represent South Australia, then represent Australia. And the challenge for me is to change from my one-on-one conversations, which I feel really comfortable with, to actually population health.
[00:42:51] And so. That’s why I spend a lot of my time in the population health areas. And some, um, changes we’ve made to the population health in Australia where we’ve gone from 55% coverage to, uh, 90% coverage. But what we haven’t done is integrate primary care with, uh, breast screening. We haven’t integrated, uh, with, um, bowel cancer screening, and they’re sitting at 60%.
[00:43:11] And the new lung cancer screening is probably gonna sit at 60% until it’s integrated into primary care. And during covid, we, we found the need for local communities to be engaged. You can’t get people on the coalface to understand what’s going on and support the changes from Canberra. The loss in trust with Canberra is because there’s no connection to the, uh, grassroots.
[00:43:30] And so bringing that connection, I think is one of the, the core things that I’m conscious of, and I think we need to bring back so that the local communities can trust politicians because they’ve got some connection with it, which is the, the basis of our work. Mm-hmm.
[00:43:43] Dianah Walter: And, yeah. Hard, no, I, I, I. I, I, I’m not disappointed with what I did over the last few months.
[00:43:51] It was a really good learning curve for me, and I’m glad that I had that experience, but I know now more than ever. Um, and whilst and quite rightly so, we can’t be called independent because we’re a group. There is so much more that we can do outside of the party politics of red and blue or green for that matter.
[00:44:10] And we, we’ve seen that in the state with, um, with a couple of notable independents in Jeff Brock, for instance. Um, we, we see the, the power that he had and, and, and he rejected the speaker’s role when he was offered that by Mike Rand back in 2010. Smart move, smart man. If you’re listening, Jeff. Um, but that, that, ’cause essentially if he’d taken that role on, uh, he, his voice would’ve been lost to the people of South Australia.
[00:44:37] And even though he represented Rome at the time, he, he was also getting a representation from all around the state. So that was a long-winded answer to your question, but hard, no.
[00:44:47] Robert Godden: Yeah. I, I mean, look, I think, uh, I think realistically in policy terms, the other, the other big grouping that you’re closest to, uh, would be the teals the whole idea of being socially progressive, but, um, you know, somewhat conservative economically, financially.
[00:45:02] Yeah. Um, so there is a lot of. There’s a lot of homes for Mm. A potential set of candidates, pun noted. Yeah. And how do you sort of, how do you sort of, um, make that like, I think we flip it. I does your road look clear to you? Have you gone? This is absolutely, it does. You’re doing,
[00:45:22] Dianah Walter: I I’m actually looking beyond this part of the, the cycle and there are a lot of road, a lot of roads, a lot of paths, a lot of homes.
[00:45:31] Um, so, but for me it’s about the partnerships and we, we think about what was achieved on the cross bench, uh, in minority government. And when there is that, uh, balance of power, and I think Kathy McGowan put it best, uh, the power of balance. It’s exquisite. And if you can think about what we can do in that regard, that’s where the strength lies.
[00:45:51] So while there are, there’s, there’ll be some shenanigans and some deals done and some conversations had, it’s really what happens. Inside the tent as people like to say, and it’s the partnerships that can be forged. And having that strong conviction to vote, um, with South Australians in mind is gonna be far easier to do that without any affiliation to a party.
[00:46:16] Dr Rod Pearce AM: And I guess, um, having been on some of those national committees and being one of the expert groups, arguing with the bureaucrats and the politicians about what could be done, I feel comfortable that I can politely and courteously and. And with some conviction, help politicians actually change their view.
[00:46:31] So as an expert committee or sitting on some of the a MA committees advising politicians, I was working with Nicola Roxon, um, who introduced me to Kevin Rudd. And, um, uh, she was saying she was doing a few things and Kevin was talking about what he’s done and they were more concerned about their power balance with them rather than what some of the policies we’re trying to do.
[00:46:50] But I’m comfortable, I can talk, um, met, uh, other, uh, prime ministers and talk to them about policies that we’re putting forward. And I’m comfortable in that role. But like I said, came back to South Australia in 2014 and been working to set up our regional practice. So we’ve got, um, practices in the country and in the city.
[00:47:06] So to make them work, it, it, it’s hard work at the coalface, but also some opportunity to talk about that at a national level.
[00:47:13] Steve Davis: It is interesting ’cause in my romantic notion of the world, I would expect there to be some high-minded debate and discussion. But I will confess that in my mid twenties I did join the A LP.
[00:47:26] And Bragg was my, um,
[00:47:29] Swapmeet: oh yeah. Or my
[00:47:29] Steve Davis: electorate. And I looked forward one night, um, I think there was a, a proposal to lower the voting age from 18 to, I think it was 17. It might have even been 16. And I thought this was gonna be great. We gotta wrestle with the issues. I, I was studying argument and critical thinking at Adelaide Union.
[00:47:47] It was fantastic. The debate was only this would a 17-year-old vote, a LP or liberal. That’s really what it came down to. Not,
[00:47:59] Dianah Walter: but how does, did that make you feel like when you realized that that’s just,
[00:48:02] Steve Davis: I left, I can’t, could I quit? I’ve never been involved in any part ofan party thing. ’cause that was a, a bankruptcy of philosophy of, of any broader community sense.
[00:48:14] It was just naked pragmatism. Um, does that shock you, Robert? Um,
[00:48:21] Robert Godden: not much shocks me to be fair. Um, uh, I think that, um, my first exposure to politics was, uh, when Malcolm Fraser, the prime Minister, came to Wyer and had a fundraising lunch and a family friend was standing as a local liberal candidate and. I learned two things from that campaign.
[00:48:42] One is it’s not great for a 15-year-old to be handing out how to vote liberal cards in why, um, if they value their personal safety and the, uh, but the second thing was just how terrible he was, um, at actually communicating. Like he was shocking. He, he got out a prepared speech, he mumbled it, and we all had lunch.
[00:49:01] Mm-hmm. And, um. And it wasn’t a surprise to me when Bob Hawke knocked him over because, uh, you know, the, the, there was no communication, authenticity was there. The ability, because we don’t wanna know, we don’t really wanna know about the machinations inside of politic political party or what they think we want.
[00:49:15] Um, yeah, I mean the, the finest exponent communication that we’ve seen in this country, um, where they got the result they want. It was Tony Abbot.
[00:49:22] Swapmeet: Mm-hmm.
[00:49:23] Robert Godden: Five, three word slogans. Yeah. That was literally all he said the entire campaign. Well,
[00:49:28] Dr Rod Pearce AM: he was, he was health minister when I was. Uh, representing and pushing some views to increase Medicare.
[00:49:33] And, um, Howard I thought was a good negotiator because he would give us probably 80% of what we wanted and we’d be unhappy with 20%. But you’d walk away saying, well, at least I got 80%. Tony Abbott put very practical ideas in front of us, said he wouldn’t increase Medicare, but we’re able to get, uh, care plans and funding for aged care, uh, reviews through, because he said, well, I’m not gonna increase your rebates, but I can offer you new Medicare numbers.
[00:49:57] So you kind of thought, well, we’ve got some win. It’s not perfect. And then the medical fraternity criticizes for putting more paperwork in front of them and you say, well, I got you a Medicare increase, but it’s not a Medicare increase. So, so I’ve been there negotiating those things, talking about and, and having that, but.
[00:50:13] Um, talking about Bob Hawke, my dad, um, was, uh, growing up with him over on York Peninsula ’cause he, his dad was a minister, born in Bordertown, went to Maitland, and then went over to Western Australia. So we’ve got, uh, films that, uh, dad’s brother took of him. Uh, and Bob Hawke playing on the Sheep, so writing on a sheep’s back.
[00:50:31] And so that’s in the National Archives when Bob Hawke was probably, uh, um, seven or six when he was living in Maitland. So that was, uh, our first family contact. And Dad grew up with the ards, um, that were always in the, in the toilet. So he used to, he used read them. So there was the Fergusons, uh, there was, uh, in state Parliament.
[00:50:49] And, um, uh, then there was a Ferguson of the Federal Parliament. But, um, the ARDS were all piled up alongside us in the, in the bathroom, so that we were reading Hansards before we could read. I, I, I feel like I suddenly, I just found out I had a deprived childhood. ’cause I would’ve loved that. Yes. Well, well it was fun to read, but it some, it was pretty boring.
[00:51:09] I don’t
[00:51:09] Steve Davis: think SA Water would be happy about those sheets being flushed down. Um, Robert, did you have another question you wanted to throw in before I bring this wonderful conversation towards its close?
[00:51:21] Robert Godden: Uh, yeah. I would ask something specifically to, to Rod and I think in the conversation, this has sort of, uh, come up anyway, but, um, you, you are very much, uh, you know, very, very, very strong on your specialist subject, um, which would be great if this was Mastermind.
[00:51:38] But what we’re talking about is someone to represent all, all South Australians, not just those with, with health issues, although we all do. Um, do you think that Oh, well, let no, I I will, I will place a criticism at your door and you tell me if it’s fair or not. Uh, I could argue that you are so focused on health and such a great health that you don’t know much about anything else when it comes to South Australia.
[00:52:04] Do you wanna sort of address that?
[00:52:06] Dr Rod Pearce AM: Yeah, thanks. This to answers one in, in my day-to-day conversations, I’ll be talking with a truck driver or I’ll be talking with someone who runs a business, uh, in Port Adelaide. Uh, I’ll be talking to people who work, um, who own multiple houses, who, um, negative gear and, and survive by their income.
[00:52:24] So I, I talk about the, I get to read a book every day, but the book is real life experiences and all the things that go right and all the things that go wrong. That sort of, the long distance truck driver who gets killed coming back. ’cause he’s, he’s, he’s gonna give up because he is starting to use drugs and he dies.
[00:52:39] And I’ve looked after his wife and his kid and helped them grow up and people who’ve had disasters, people who succeed, all of that stuff. I see. So. I have an insight into the real world, uh, in all aspects of it. And it’s not always rich people, it’s poor people, but I understand that someone who’s carefully crafted five houses and relies on negative gearing that they need to survive too.
[00:53:00] I know the pensioners need to have a future where they’re not, um, feel threatened by people taking away their income. So I get that. And, and since we’ve been, um, looking at running for parliament, we’ve met with business owners, we’ve met with people, um, and talked about that. And, um, I think I have enough ability to understand their situation and say, look, we’re not gonna pull down, um, uh, rich people just so that poor people can get extra dollar.
[00:53:26] And as, uh, um, Melissa was saying, there’s enough room in Australia for everyone. She doesn’t care if Gina Reinhart gets her elect electricity subsidies. She just wants to make sure that people living below the poverty line get it. So, so I’m happy to engage and talk and I talk to them. I grew up on a farm.
[00:53:42] York Peninsula is one of the, um, richest, uh, um, best, uh, wheat growing, um, areas. Uh, in Australia. There’s a mine about to be produced, uh, in Rosn. So, um, we’ve got it. Uh, there. I worked in the, um, uh, in the silos, uh, at Rosn. Um, we’ve got a practice there. I mixed with those people. So I have an insight. I don’t have all the answers, but I know people who do have the answers, I think, and I’m willing to talk to them and understand it.
[00:54:09] But it’s not about saying, um, some people have to win and some people have to lose. It’s about a win-win situation where Australia can actually go forward and we can support those people.
[00:54:19] Steve Davis: I’m surprised to hear there’s a wheat mine being opened up.
[00:54:22] Dr Rod Pearce AM: Entire wheat. No, there’s no best wheat growing country.
[00:54:26] And that was a controversy about whether a mine should be interrupting the wheat country. So we’ve talked to both sides of that
[00:54:32] Steve Davis: now. Um, Diana, there was a story on a, b, c news this morning at the time of recording this, about how the extension to the calling of the election. Has meant Dutton has leapt from the starting gates and petered out a little bit and it’s working against him.
[00:54:49] Um, you’ve been around this sort of thing before. Is it actually a little blessing in disguise for you to, that you’ve got extra time to get more conversations happening? What are you doing with this extra?
[00:55:04] Dianah Walter: Yeah, I actually believe it is. I, part of me thought that a quick short campaign and this in the scheme of things is really still going to be quite quick.
[00:55:12] Yeah. If, because we need to have an election by the 17th of May, um, it is at advantageous given that a senator represents the whole state and not, uh, an an electorate as such. So we are not going to be able to get around to every single place in South Australia, but we can have reach by using the people that we have.
[00:55:31] So having that little bit of extra time, and maybe if Mr. Dutton’s running at a bit of puff, he might need to go and have a checkup with his gp.
[00:55:40] Steve Davis: Um. I look, there is one thing you might be very happy to know that we, not Matt and Dave, which I think that was in some ways, although it was entertaining, it was the bad old days for politics.
[00:55:51] ’cause it meant the politicians just had to go in knowing it’s going to be combative. Mm-hmm. And not constructive. Um, but there will be gotcha questions when the mass media sit down with you. Because in my reading of, I’m a former journalist, I think they see. People unendorsed as play things as little novelties to, to have some fun with like a cat and a mouse and then throw them aside.
[00:56:18] How are, how are you prepared for this when they try the gotcha. Like, what’s the price of milk? Or they say, what’s your position on abortion? Or anything out of the blue? Uh, is this what, yeah, what, what’s your thinking? Because you are considered play things because labor and liberal is easier to, to fit in their mindsets.
[00:56:39] Dr Rod Pearce AM: Oh. Um. Uh, going back to my training, I guess one of the things the a MA did was, um, threw us in front of, uh, media and, um, they would do fake door stops and put us on the spot. I guess I’ve been talking on radio and TV and, um, um, but that’s a different circumstance where they come to me usually for advice and or opinion or to comment on, um, uh, you know, what, what did, um, uh, someone die of in America.
[00:57:07] Um, so, um, those, um. Those sort of conversations I guess I’ve dealt with. But the people I’ve support behind, uh, who support me behind the scenes talk about, um, how to answer questions that I’m not sure of. But my view and our view is that we can, um, look at those things or take them up. Um, uh, house of Review is about actually having time to think about some of those things.
[00:57:28] Um, and yeah, there are some difficult questions and sometimes there’s a political answer and sometimes there’s a, um, well you’ve gotta take a side, um, and decide whether you lose people or, or not. Um, so, um, I do have views, but whether those are the things that should be talked about or whether it’s about what I’ll do in Parliament if those things come to discuss with ’em.
[00:57:49] But, um, I’m prepared to take those questions and I’ve been doing it for, um, 25 years now, I guess. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
[00:57:55] Steve Davis: I do like the House of Review aspect ’cause you are in the House of Review and it almost seems like, uh. It’s like those Hollywood movies where the, the cop gets there to the place where the baddies are without any backup and decides to go in anyway.
[00:58:10] And you can just wait three minutes and it’ll be safe. That ability to say, look, I really do need to get back to you on this. Um, we need to see some more specifics. Then we can have a position. That seems like a mature grownup thing to do.
[00:58:26] Dianah Walter: It is. It is. And in my experience, and I, and, and I’m sure there will be gotcha moments for me as well.
[00:58:33] Uh, but I think there’s a way, and I don’t think I actually believe really strongly that regardless of the question put to me, I have enough, um. Knowledge and I have enough, uh, stories and I often say, you’ll hear me say that personal narratives are really powerful instruments of change. And again, this is not about Rod and I, this is about South Australians and I, in chatting with our team this morning before we came here, I I, I reminded them that this opportunity was not about us selling our credentials, but it’s about making sure the voices of Melissa and Archer and, uh, Lily and others are heard through us, through us.
[00:59:14] Robert Godden: Um, so here’s your got your question. Go for it. No, I just occurred to me whether you win one or two or zero Senate. See, are we actually looking at the start of something here? Like regardless of the outcome here, uh, the surely your finish line isn’t winning a seat. Surely your no no finish line is you’re absolute is where this movement can go.
[00:59:36] Dianah Walter: You’re absolutely right. And this is very similar to the community independent movement that was, um, brought about in Indi with Kathy McGowan, uh, and her incredible legacy, but. We are not just about getting to polling day win, lose or draw. We have given our word and our word is, um, is of more value. And our reputations are, are more valuable to us than anything.
[01:00:01] We’ve given commitments to people that we have said we would help, that we would follow through. There’s a couple of organizations that we’ve given commitments to, and one in particular is around, um, a supported, um, business where people with disability can work but actually get paid a living wage. Uh, and we will commit to that.
[01:00:18] And if that takes me another two years to fight that battle, I will do it. And I’ve done the same with, um, in giving a commitment to our farming community as well around drought. And, and, and that’s just a couple of examples. And
[01:00:29] Dr Rod Pearce AM: there’s, there’s ongoing things that I’ll be committed to, whether I’m, um, in the Senate or not.
[01:00:32] And, um, uh, I’ve felt that keeping, uh, in contact with the frontline, the grassroots and day-to-day individual people is important to make public policy.
[01:00:45] Steve Davis: And just one final question. Do you, does essay matters have a set of policies that you put out like a party? Or is it more, this is the disposition that we will take to things and this is what you are putting into the Senate?
[01:00:59] That’s
[01:01:00] Dianah Walter: exactly how it is. And, and Rod explained it earlier by saying the Senate is the House of Review and the. The role of the Senate is to scrutinize bills and legislation, but also if need be set up committees. And we wonder whether there might be a, a need to have a committee around, um, or a select committee or an investigation around some of the elements of NDIS or do we review the recommendations that were brought about with the Age Care Royal Commission, some of those that haven’t been implemented so well, we’ve got
[01:01:27] Dr Rod Pearce AM: the accs review onto, um, what should happen.
[01:01:31] Um, it’s a whole nother big topic, but there’s some answers there that should be discussed. So how to discuss them, how to process them, and which ones to take up and which ones are about supporting, uh, farmers, which ones are about supporting consumers. And, um, so all of those things, uh, an opportunity to review and progress and to make, yeah, so no policies,
[01:01:47] Dianah Walter: but, uh, the capacity to have views and to, to lead with the voices of South Australians front and center.
[01:01:54] Steve Davis: And I suppose that is the, the reason we had this chat. We needed to get to know you.
[01:01:59] Dianah Walter: Yes.
[01:01:59] Steve Davis: So we knew. Who to vote for or not vote for, et cetera. Um, well, I hope the journey is a productive one.
[01:02:07] Dianah Walter: Thank you. May I, may I just, I wanna share something with you both that I think you’ll, it’ll resonate with you. So my partner is a mature age law student, and he didn’t think that he would ever be able to do something like this.
[01:02:18] And, and I said to him one day, um, well, why don’t you, and let’s jump online and let’s enroll you somewhere. So he’s in his final year of his law degree and he’s doing admin law at the moment. And we sit down and our conversations around the dinner table are incredibly, um, they can be boisterous and they can be robust, and, but they’re always done with, uh, respect and love.
[01:02:40] And he was writing a piece for one of his assignments and it reminded me about what we’re about to do. And it, and he, he said, and, and I’m gonna paraphrase the social contract between the government and the people who, and the people who choose the government via the electoral system that we know. It’s renewed every three years, so the social contract federally at least, is renewed every three years.
[01:03:06] The people get the opportunity to either. Terminate that contract or renew it. So look at this as a bit of a business decision, I think. I think he put it really eloquently and it’s absolutely a social contract and that’s given me another lens of which to, to run this campaign through.
[01:03:26] Steve Davis: Thank you Donor Walter and Dr.
[01:03:27] Rod Pierce am for being part of the Adelaide Show. So
[01:03:31] Dianah Walter: thank you.
[01:03:32] Steve Davis: Thank you.
[01:03:41] TAS Theme: And now it’s time for the musical pilgrimage
[01:03:46] Steve Davis: in the musical pilgrimage. Before we wrap up today’s conversation with Diana and Rod, it feels fitting to feature band that knows something about rebranding while staying true to their roots. You see Murray Bridge’s own swap meet. Began life as sour sob before a legal threat from another artist forced them to change course.
[01:04:06] The band initially worried that changing their name might cost them opportunities at bigger interstate gigs, and that tension between original identity and new identity. Well, that’s something Diana’s navigating with her move from a party to a Senate ticket. The name Swap Meet, by the way, carries special significance for the band’s lead singer Venus Obra, who got her current guitar at a swap meet.
[01:04:32] I think that provides a grassroots connection between Venus and her music in a way that sort of mirrors our Senate hopefuls commitment to building their campaign from the ground up. By the way, uh, swap Meets debut EP oxalis. Cheekily named after the genus of the sour salt plant. You gotta love that chutzpah.
[01:04:52] And that EP features today’s track ceiling fan, which captures the the dreamy indie folk rock sound that’s become their signature. And like our guest today, what meets found that sometimes. Starting fresh can be liberating. Giving you the freedom to define yourself on your own terms. And is this a moment?
[01:05:12] Swap Meet Won Best song at last year’s essay. Music awards in 2024 with ceiling fans. Hey, maybe finding a new identity, but staying true to your roots can work
[01:05:23] Swapmeet: perfect. I’ve
[01:05:43] at the ceiling.
[01:06:07] Your mind. There’s nothing more, there’s nothing more’s
[01:06:19] like a,
[01:06:28] this delusional sense of.
[01:08:48] Without having to.
[01:09:17] Steve Davis: That ceiling fan by swap meet. And that’s it for this episode of that late. So thank you very much for listening and when the election happens, most likely in May, 2025, remember to vote. Until then, it’s good night for me, Steve Davis. Goodnight, Don.
[01:09:36] AJ Davis: The Adelaide Show Podcast is produced by my dad, Steve Davis.
[01:09:41] If you want to start a podcast or get some help producing creative content, talk to him. Visit steve davis.com au. Thanks, aj. I’m Caitlyn Davis, and I agree with everything my sister said, but there’s one more thing to say. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please leave a rating or a review ’cause that will make my dad really happy.
[01:10:06] Oh, and one more thing. If you really, really liked it, please help a friend put the Adelaide Show on their phone. Thanks for listening. Listening.
[01:10:20] Buzz buzz.
[01:10:34] TAS Theme: Bad lady.