CITY OF ADELAIDE PLANNING

Mrs GERAGHTY (Torrens) (14:27): My question is to the Deputy Premier. As Minister for Planning, can he inform the house about changes to incorporate design into planning and how this will help the city centre?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:27): I thank the member for Torrens for her question—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: No, we didn't have a ministerial on this at all; this was a completely separate matter. Yesterday, along with the Premier, the Lord Mayor and the government architect, Mr Ben Hewett, we announced some reforms embedding design into the planning system. The whole object of this was to bring design from being something that was considered at the very end of the process, after the proponent had had their drawings prepared, had made their applications, had put their applications into the system, and at the very last minute somebody would ask, 'Oh, yes, what about design?'

All along the way the criteria were basically prescriptive criteria or a tick-a-box sort of the situation with 70-odd pages of boxes to tick. We have now completely changed the whole focus of this so that we have a system whereby planning is part of the beginning of the system, not something thought of as an afterthought at the end. So, the planning at the beginning involves design, a design panel, as I said, with the government architect as the chair of that panel, and it is designed to take us as far away as we possibly can from the cookie cutter view of planning approvals to one where ingenious solutions to particular planning challenges are being assessed from the beginning by a panel of experts.

The process will involve a case management system, which will be assisted by members from the department of planning. There will also be regulation changes, which are actually operating from today, to deal with rezoning to accompany all of this, and we are going to see quite an exciting period in the City of Adelaide. Can I say—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Can I say, the planning reforms announced both yesterday and today represent the most substantial change in the planning regime in the city for probably a generation. I would like to say thank you very much to the very hardworking people in my department who have spent a great deal of time on this. I would also like to thank the people from the Adelaide City Council—both the elected members and the staff of the Adelaide City Council—who have actually worked in an extremely cooperative way with my departmental officers to get to this historic outcome where we actually have the government and the Adelaide City Council agreeing about a future path for the city which is going to create a vibrant, interesting place for South Australians to have as their capital. I congratulate all of the people concerned. This is a major step forward.