Planning and Development Fund

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (14:26): My question is to the Minister for Planning. Can the minister update the house on how the Marshall Liberal government is supporting South Australia's councils and local communities through the doubling of the Planning and Development Fund in response to COVID-19?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:27): I thank the member for Flinders very much for his question and note that the Planning and Development Fund in previous rounds has been good to the City of Port Lincoln, especially in relation to the Parnkalla Trail Wharf Precinct redevelopment. I have had the opportunity to have a look at parts of that; that and the types of projects we are looking to seek to undertake in the coming months as part of our stimulus program are quite exciting.

There are twin issues that we as a government are seeking to deal with, and the Premier has outlined to the house already the health challenges that exist and the steps that the government has put in place in relation to dealing with this pandemic. But there are economic issues also that are befalling our state. We have seen people lose their jobs and industries having to shut down as a result of safety measures and health measures, and we as a government have stepped up to help deal with those issues.

In fact, we were the first state in the nation—the first jurisdiction in the nation—to put tranche 1 of its stimulus program on the table, a $350 million commitment, to short-term largely capital projects to help provide work during the course of this pandemic, making sure that we can help to put jobs into the economy, doing a lot of the work that can be done at this time given the very constrained circumstances that we are working in. This $350 million forms part of a broader $1 billion package worth of stimulus that we are putting into the South Australian economy. In comparative terms, it is huge when compared to the work that other jurisdictions have put in place.

The Premier and I have on a number of occasions now spoken directly to mayors and to CEOs in the local government sector about how they can help support the stimulus effort. The local government sector is the third tier of government. It is an extremely important part of how we are going to combat coronavirus both from a health perspective and from an economic perspective.

We know that councils in South Australia by and large have strong balance sheets. They have the opportunity to be able to contribute to the stimulus effort, and they have the ability to borrow to contribute again to that effort. The federal government have put on the table some hundreds of billions of dollars worth of taxpayers' money that is going to be put into helping our economy flow through this and deal with this pandemic. The state government also are putting this $1 billion stimulus on the table. Local governments need to be part of that.

The Planning and Development Fund round, which is open at the moment, is the perfect example and the perfect opportunity for councils to be able to contribute. So, as part of our first package, we doubled this year's Planning and Development Fund round to some $50 million. We also extended the time frame for which councils can put in applications to 9 April—it's essentially about an eight or nine-day increase in the time frame—so that we can make sure that we give councils enough time to put projects in.

Very much what we want to see from this is projects that are shovel-ready, projects that councils have been working on, that they are prepared to fund fifty-fifty, that can get out of the ground in the coming months, so that we can help to provide jobs into our economy to offset some of the difficulties that are being seen in other sectors of our economy. We are also very keen to use this as an opportunity to beautify our city.

We know that improving green cover in our city is extremely important. We know that improving play spaces is important. We know that helping to upgrade main streets, especially in regional areas, is important to help drive people back to the regions when it is safe and appropriate to do so. This $50 million fund, the state government working together with local government, is going to deliver jobs for South Australians and it's also going to deliver a more beautiful South Australia in the offing.