Council Assessment Panels

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:46): A supplementary: when might these new measures be implemented, minister?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:46): Thank you, again, member for Florey. They will be staged over the coming 15 months. On 1 July this year, the planning and design code actually comes into force in the out-of-councils areas. In fact, I know that the department has been out consulting on that draft code over the past few months and been out to far-flung places, much of them in the member for Stuart's and the member for Giles' electorates, talking to people about what this means for them.

We will see in all regional areas of South Australia that all those council areas outside the 18 metropolitan council areas will have their code turned on at the end of this year. That's certainly a very welcome step. There are actually a number of policy changes that we are hoping to implement as part of that, especially in relation to providing greater opportunity for more employment and more sympathetic development within the environment and food production area so that farmers can have a greater ability to value-add on farm.

The other issue that we are seeking to implement at that point is in relation to wind farms, which are very contentious in regional communities. As regional MPs who sit on this side of the house, we have made commitments over many years and, essentially, the bringing of the new code at the end of the year for regional areas will encompass those changes. For metropolitan Adelaide, that will be turned on in the middle of next year. So for your electorate, member for Florey, it's the middle of next year when this new code will be turned on, and with that those new assessment pathways will come into effect.