Bills

Statutes Amendment (Colonel Light Gardens Character Protection) Bill

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (10:33): I seek leave to move the motion standing in my name in an amended form.

Leave granted.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Development Act 1993 and the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016. Read a first time.

Standing Orders Suspension

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (10:34): I move:

That standing orders be so far suspended as to enable the bill to be taken through all stages without delay.

The SPEAKER: An absolute majority not being present, please ring the bells.

An absolute majority of the whole number of members being present:

The SPEAKER: An absolute majority present, I accept the motion.

Mr PICTON: Point of order: my understanding is that the member for Heysen left the chamber during the calling of the quorum, which I understand is a breach of standing orders.

The SPEAKER: I did not see the member for Heysen leave, but I will have a look at the footage. I will take it up and, if required, I will come back to the house. I accept the point of order. I will look into the matter. Thank you, member for Kaurna.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Mr Speaker, is there opportunity for debate on the motion?

The SPEAKER: There is. We have multiple members standing up, so either sit down—

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: Mr Speaker, do I get a right to speak?

The SPEAKER: Yes, you do, absolutely.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: The reason I asked for a suspension of standing orders is that this bill we have put before the house is an extremely important bill, which is a bill that has been raised not only on this side of the house but also by the other side. In fact, minister Speirs and the member for Elder have also raised this in the public domain as a critical issue that needs to be addressed. For those reasons, I would expect government members to support this bill because I think it is an issue—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: That would be consistent.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: That is correct. It would be consistent. It is a very important issue in that community, so I look forward to the support of government members and crossbenchers to suspend standing orders.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (10:37): Mr Speaker, when we on this side of the house have asked—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —for a suspension of standing orders, we provide other members of the chamber the courtesy of actually looking at the bill that is seeking to be debated forthwith before the suspension of standing orders is asked for.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: To ask this chamber to move to deal with all stages of a bill without showing the chamber the bill before the suspension is asked for just shows the fact that the member, having been here now since 2006—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —still does not understand how the process is supposed to work. The government will be opposing the suspension of standing orders. I do note that, in passing yesterday, the member for West Torrens told me they were going to move for a suspension of standing orders today. Did he say what it was about? No. Did he provide a copy of the bill beforehand? No.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: I understand that they are consulting on potential changes to heritage in Colonel Light Gardens right at the moment. It seems that that consultation is just a sham, and really they have the bill and what they propose to do ready for the chamber before they have even finished the consultation. To say that the government has to support this is ridiculous. If the member genuinely wanted a debate, rather than just have a farce in this chamber, he would have had the courtesy of providing the minister with a copy of the bill beforehand and been able to debate and discuss the bill so that we could deal with it, as opposed to what this is, which is just a stunt to waste the house's time.

The house divided on the motion:

Ayes 12

Noes 13

Majority 1

Motion thus negatived.

Second Reading

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (10:44): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

It gives me great pleasure to introduce this bill to preserve the historic character of Colonel Light Gardens. In terms of the purpose of the bill, it proposes to amend the Development Act 1993 and the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 to require the drafting and adoption of a Burra Charter quality Colonel Light Gardens management plan. I will explain what all that means in a moment.

The amenity of Colonel Light Gardens is truly something special, and it is worthy of inspection. If it were allowed, I would show the chamber an international book that lists Colonel Light Gardens, but I will not do that because it would be disorderly.

The SPEAKER: It would.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: This book lists the model gardens around the world, and Colonel Light Gardens is one of them. It is internationally recognised as one of the model garden developments in the world, and we should be proud of that.

The Hon. V.A. Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: We should be proud of that. The street layout, public spaces, laneways, landscaping and architecture combine to make it one of the most livable places in the world. It is no accident that families both young and not so young love to live there. There is an opportunity to protect Colonel Light Gardens not just for existing households but for many generations to come.

I know the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Croydon, is very supportive of this bill, having grown up in the area, and he understands the importance of the bill in protecting the community where he was raised and where his family still lives. Other people have also been raised there and continue to live there. The bill will insert several criteria taken from the commonwealth's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Regulations 2000, which detail the principles required for Burra Charter quality National Heritage management principle and management plans for National Heritage places.

Schedule 3 will require a Colonel Light Gardens Management Plan to be prepared by the minister. In preparation for the plan, the minister must undertake extensive stakeholder consultation, including any residents' associations based in that community. The plan will go into great detail, and the framework must consider comprehensive information about the location, features, condition, historical context and the current use of the Colonel Light Gardens area to inform the heritage policy proposed.

This bill enshrines the heritage principles of Colonel Light Gardens in legislation, and that is very important. I will repeat that: this bill enshrines the heritage principles of Colonel Light Gardens in legislation. All future development would then have to adhere to these principles. In terms of the background to the bill, Colonel Light Gardens was the first entire suburb in South Australia to achieve state heritage status, and it maintains that status today, a status that could, however, be put at risk by prospective changes mooted for implementation in the coming months under the Marshall Liberal government's design code.

The suburb is commonly referred to by council and South Australian government literature as Australia's most complete example of an early 1900s 'garden suburb'. The suburb has an interesting history. It was established by the Vaughan Labor government's June 1915 purchase of the Grange Farm property (about 121 hectares) south of Adelaide, from the trustees of the estate of William Tennant Mortlock. The property was purchased with the intent to establish a model garden suburb, following the inspiration of a lecture tour to South Australia by Charles C. Reade in 1914. He was subsequently employed by the Vaughan government to become South Australia's first government town planner.

Reade's planning principles were guided by the international garden city movement of the time, which had an ambition to improve the lifestyle and residential environment of all classes of people. I stress that this suburb was not established for the rich and wealthy: it was actually established for working-class people. It was established to have a mixed community, in other words, working-class and other more affluent people. That is very important. It has changed today but the proposal for this garden was established with good egalitarian principles. The war interrupted the state government's intention for Grange Farm and the land was used as an army training camp until 1920.

I was pleased to discuss the heritage of Colonel Light Gardens with Keith Conlon on ABC radio last Friday. He talked about the rolling series of centenary celebrations to be celebrated, including the 100-year anniversary of the selection of the suburb's name, the planting of many of the large trees and the school opening in 1926. He agreed that a management plan was needed and the area needed to be better managed. In fact, Monday 27 April was Colonel Light's birthday. He was born in 1786.

While properties were available for purchase from August 1921, residential development was accelerated with the Gunn Labor government's 1924-26 Thousand Homes scheme, with 695 homes built in the suburb. This was one of the first iterations of what is now called the Housing Trust. The scheme complemented the garden suburb's ambition to improve the lifestyle and residential environment of all classes of people through the comingling of different socio-economic classes. It also expedited the development of shops, parks and other private developments in the suburb.

All properties designated for development were sold by 1927 and the suburb has remained substantially unchanged since then. We were so proud of the suburb that, in 1947, Colonel Light Gardens was featured in a film sponsored by the Australian government to attract British migrants to Australia. Such was the prominence of Colonel Light Gardens that it had its own act of parliament until the mid-1970s and remained the only suburb in South Australia under comprehensive town planning legislation until jurisdiction was transferred to the City of Mitcham in 1975, when the Garden Suburb Act 1919 was repealed.

In terms of the Planning and Design Code impacts or effects, the Marshall government's draft planning code may impose some unintended consequences that could put the heritage of Colonel Light Gardens at risk, as the draft code does not have the power to protect the character of the suburb. One of the biggest criticisms I have heard from local government and people involved in planning is that the new code's structure does not allow for local character to be protected. I stress that the draft code does not have the power to protect the character of suburbs, and particularly this suburb.

This could jeopardise the unique character of Colonel Light Gardens, including the public open space for parks and reserves, such as Mortlock Park and Reade Park; the absence of dwelling congestion; ample yard space at the front and back of properties; careful residential, commercial and community land-use zoning; consistent vegetation of public space along roadways; natural clusters of river red gums near Reade Park and the south-east boundary of Colonel Light Gardens Primary School; the wide, tree-shaded footpaths of East Parkway and West Parkway, Salisbury Crescent and Sturt Avenue; the curved roads and rounded street corners at intersections for road safety purposes; and the functional hierarchy of streets and different street widths to facilitate traffic flow, such as Broadway, which is 99 feet wide, West Parkway, which is 80 feet wide, secondary traffic and shopping streets, which vary from 66 to 80 feet wide, residential streets, which vary from 42 to 52 feet wide, and the accordingly varied width of nature strips.

You do not get a true appreciation of the beauty, the intricacies or the importance of the original character of the suburb until you actually walk through it. I was fortunate enough to be taken on a tour of Colonel Light Gardens by the residents' association at the invitation of Mr Philip Knight. I was truly amazed at what I saw, and that opportunity allowed me to fully understand it. I understand that I was actually the first MP to do that; the local member had not yet found time to do that walk. The Minister for Water found time later on, but did not find the time today to support the suspension motion to debate the bill.

Homes have the distinctive characteristics of low-pitch, corrugated iron roofs; wide, overhanging eaves; street-facing gables; gable vents; and taper cut bargeboards, etc. You get the feel from the detail in that list of what a unique suburb this is. Under the draft Planning and Design Code for phase 3 council areas (regional city and metropolitan), the conservation zone only goes so far.

While it Labor's view that Colonel Light Gardens needs additional protection, more importantly, residents believe that more protection is needed. What we are doing here today is motivated by the actions of residents who have lobbied me, other members of parliament and, I am aware, members of the government for some time, saying that they want these protections in place.

Conservation zones become generic across the state under the draft code and a number of councils, including the City of Marion, have actually expressed serious concern that local character will be lost under the design code. Colonel Light Gardens is a special case. A clear management plan is needed to determine what can and cannot be done, as the draft code will effectively downgrade protection by watering it down. The draft code does not provide the protections the community is seeking. The residents have long held—

The Hon. S.K. Knoll interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Minister for Planning!

Mr PICTON: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Residents have long held the fear that the suburb's character might be damaged through incremental micro-level changes. The draft Planning and Design Code poses a major threat to the character of this suburb. Colonel Light Gardens should remain as Australia's most complete example of an early 1900s garden suburb.

As I indicated earlier, this is not only concern expressed by me and this side of politics but also, more importantly, concern expressed by stakeholders on the consultation. I would like to thank the Colonel Light Gardens Residents' Association and other committee members and groups who have raised their concerns with me and my Labor colleagues. Labor has undertaken extensive consultation. I was pleased to participate in a walking tour, as mentioned, of the suburb organised by Mr Philip Knight, who is the secretary of the Colonel Light Gardens Historical Society. He is very passionate about preserving the heritage of Colonel Light Gardens. Not only is he passionate but he is extremely knowledgeable about this, too, and his understanding and knowledge of this community is probably second to none. It would be wise for any MP to listen to that counsel from Mr Knight.

I thank everyone who has responded to Labor's 'Our plan to preserve historic Colonel Light Gardens' survey, which has helped inform the preparation of the bill to ensure that it reflects the views of the local community. The residents' association's view is that, if elements of the garden suburb's principles and values, which underpin Colonel Light Gardens' state heritage area listing, are subverted through ill-advised development approvals, the heritage valve of the suburb is diluted and effectively undermined one development at a time.

Having assessed the draft Planning and Design Code, the residents association do not expect the code, which will replace the Mitcham (City) Development Plan, to resolve their concerns regarding inappropriate developments in Colonel Light Gardens. I stress that: having assessed the draft Planning and Design Code, the residents' association does not expect the code, which will replace the Mitcham (City) Development Plan, to resolve their concerns regarding inappropriate developments at Colonel Light Gardens.

The residents' association is of the firm belief that the garden suburb values and principles of Colonel Light Gardens can only be appropriately upheld through the establishment of a management plan drafted in accordance with the principles of the Burra Charter. Under this proposal, all development applications would have to be assessed against the Burra Charter quality.

Labor knows that this is a priority for residents because, when I and the Labor team meet with Colonel Light Gardens' locals, planning, development and heritage issues are consistently raised with us. We have listened to residents, and today Labor is introducing this legislation to preserve the character of this historic suburb. I am now calling on the Marshall Liberal government to support this bill so that together we can better protect and preserve the unique garden suburb character of Colonel Light Gardens.

As shadow minister for veterans affairs, I am also aware of the areas' links with the former Mitcham Army Camp and soldiers who served their country during the First World War. The war interrupted the state government's intention for Grange Farm, and the land was used as an Army training camp until 1920. It was used by the Light Horse and infantry battalions, such as the 32^nd Battalion raised at Mitcham, and many who went on to fight at Gallipoli.

While properties were available for purchase in Colonel Light Gardens from 1921, residential development in the suburb was accelerated under the Labor government's 1924-26 Thousand Homes scheme—695 of which were built in that suburb. With those comments, I commend the bill to the house. Also, to put it in a historical context, this suburb is not just a wonderful place but played an important role in the protection of our nation.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Pederick.