Personal Explanation

State Planning Commission

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning and Local Government) (15:20): I seek leave to make a personal explanation.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: During yesterday's grievance debate, the member for Mawson made the accusation:

…that the Planning Commission is engaging in politics because the Attorney-General in this place is directing her to do it.

Firstly, can I assure the house, with certainty, that this is not the case. The member refers to a number of public statements made by the state planning commissioner in relation to the legislative review of environment and food production areas which is currently occurring.

Prior to the commencement of the public consultation of the review, I was provided with a copy of the statement of intent by the commission and informed that consultation would occur for a period of eight weeks. I was not involved in the drafting of the documents in relation to this consultation. Once consultation was commenced, my office was made aware of correspondence made by the member for Mawson addressed to the Willunga Environment Centre Inc., who had published it on their public website.

My office forwarded this to staff at the Planning and Land Use Services division of the Attorney-General's Department, as they understood the member was introducing new material to the community which required further clarification. The decision to respond to the member by the commission and the manner in which they did so was one they made entirely on their own. I was not involved in any discussions with the chair, Ms Dyer, about the sites the member is concerned with; however, I did welcome the decision of the commission recently, as did the member for Mawson, that there would be no changes to the character preservation area as part of the EFPA review.