INNER METROPOLITAN AREA CHARACTER SUBURBS

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON (Croydon) (14:31): I ask the Minister for Urban Development, Planning and the City of Adelaide: can he inform the house about the work he is doing to protect character areas within the inner metropolitan area, such as Croydon—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: —as identified in the 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide—which will include the reopening of Barton Road?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice, Minister for Urban Development, Planning and the City of Adelaide, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Food Marketing) (14:31): I thank the member for Croydon very much for his question and I know that he is fortunate enough to represent many parts of the city of Adelaide in the western part of the city, which are actually character suburbs with magnificent examples of development.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.R. RAU: The 30-year plan is a document that is designed to deal with the problem that we have over the next 30 years of accommodating some 560,000 additional people living in the city of Adelaide. There are a number of possible ways that could have been dealt with. One way would have been, of course, to allow Adelaide to stretch from Port Wakefield to Victor Harbor and that would have been a magnificent outcome if you liked driving a great deal and were very keen on paying for enormous amounts of infrastructure and weren't much interested in public transport.

Obviously that is not the view that the government has taken, and I have to say I understand that the opposition has also supported the 30-year plan, and that is to their credit. In any event, the 30-year plan requires a large amount of infill in what is now the current footprint of the city of Adelaide. I know that a number of people have been concerned about what this might mean for character suburbs, including areas within the electorate of Croydon.

At a recent meeting (11 May) that I had with the mayors and other councillors from what we call the 'rim councils', that is, the ones which immediately surround the City of Adelaide, we had a discussion about what this might mean in terms of development for the city. One of the issues of concern, particularly for people much like the member for Croydon, but also the local government people who represent areas like Unley and such like, was that the character parts—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.R. RAU: —of their city might wind up being the subject of urban infill. What we have at the moment is, in some respects, the worst of all worlds, that is—

Mrs Redmond: A Labor government.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Very good, very funny.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.R. RAU: We have got urban infill occurring on the basis of an old large property being knocked over and two Tuscan something or others replacing it. That is occurring at random throughout the suburbs—

The Hon. M.D. Rann: An insult to Tuscany.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Quite right, they shouldn't be called that, they don't have much of a Tuscan flavour. The point is, that is representing a great threat to these character areas. People need to understand, and I think the rim councils now do understand, that the 30-year plan envisages the focus of the growth in population being on key transport routes, and the Minister for Transport, and others, have been working very well with the planning people to make sure that these are all worked through very carefully—trams, buses, rail, and so forth.

There is effectively going to be a trade-off where within the next few years we are going to see higher density in main development areas; for example, the periphery of the city, some of the major roads, the Port Road area and, of course, the Clipsal site. The trade-off for that is that those people living in areas where there are character houses are going to find there is less development pressure in those areas. In fact, the upside will be that those people are going to have a greater chance of protecting the heritage, quality and amenity of those established suburbs than is presently the case.

Having discussed that with the mayors the other night, I think all of them were very keen to see the matter progress. I look forward to being able to get back to the house from time to time with news as to how this planning process is developing. It is a very exciting opportunity for the city of Adelaide. We are going to see the city transformed in the next few years in a way that all of us will be very proud of. The cooperation that the government is receiving from those councils has been commendable, and we look forward to continuing that relationship. The Minister for Transport has been having a fantastic relationship with the City of Adelaide, as have I, and we look forward to it continuing.