Planning and Design Code

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:47): Supplementary, Mr Speaker: I thank the minister for that full response to my question. Given the scale of the reform, for which I have already had widespread feedback in the negative, are you prepared to risk the code being disallowed by the parliament should you proceed with the current format?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:47): It's a hypothetical question, but I am happy to answer it anyway. The first thing I would say is that the vast majority of what is happening with the code is actually just a transferral over of existing planning policy. In fact, there are only a handful of areas where we are seeing significant policy change. One is in relation to opening up value-adding opportunities in rural areas, essentially trying to stimulate our economy by providing greater opportunity to value-add on farm, to be able to have a small to medium scale tourist operations on farm, and to help grow our regional tourism and value-adding economy.

We are also improving the way houses are built in Adelaide. Mr Speaker, you would be very well aware of some of the negative consequences of previous planning decisions having been made which created undue concern in communities. I have moved, with your help, Mr Speaker, to change that and fix that in Campbelltown, and now this is something that we can roll out right across South Australia: the fact that we want to increase garage sizes so that people actually stick their car in the garage rather than park it on the street; the fact that we want to see a bit of green space on people's lawn, where they have the opportunity and the requirement to plant a tree; the fact that we want to look at a double driveway with a single crossover to preserve green space on the verge and also provide more opportunity for on-street parking.

There are a whole series of measures that we are putting in place to deal with the fact that over the past seven years we have seen a complete reversal in the way that houses are built. Instead of 75 per cent of housing being built on the greenfields fringe, we are now seeing 75 per cent of housing being built in metropolitan Adelaide, inside the existing footprint. The planning policies that were in place didn't adequately deal with that phenomenon happening. In fact, in planning terms, it happened extremely quickly, but we are now up to and dealing with the challenge.

In relation to a potential disallowance, the advice that I have at the moment is that this is a code that will be referred to the Environment, Resources and Development Committee, and it will be a decision of that committee about laying this, as we would any other development plan amendment, before the houses for a report. This is a phenomenal step forward, one that improves consultation, speeds up time frames, gives greater certainty to communities, helps to improve value-adding in regional areas and helps to improve infill inside our existing metropolitan suburban footprint. It will deliver the most advanced planning system in the country, and I think it is a fantastic step forward for our state.