Bills

Private Parking Areas (Shopping Centre Parking Areas) Amendment Bill

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. N.D. CHAMPION (Taylor—Minister for Trade and Investment, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Planning) (15:46): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Private Parking Areas Act 1986. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. N.D. CHAMPION (Taylor—Minister for Trade and Investment, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Planning) (15:47): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Today, I am pleased to introduce the Private Parking Areas (Shopping Centre Parking Areas) Amendment Bill 2022, which amends the Private Parking Areas Act 1986 to prevent paid parking at shopping centres with a gross lettable area of 34,000 square metres or more. The introduction of this bill meets our election commitment to introduce a bill into parliament to prevent paid parking at Tea Tree Plaza shopping centre, but it also seeks to assist both consumers and shopping centre workers and retail workers more broadly across South Australia.

As we return to post-COVID conditions, encouraging people to both work in our retail sector and return to bricks-and-mortar shopping, is important for our economy. The Private Parking Areas Act 1986, as it stands currently, provides for control to be placed on parking areas—for instance, time limits or disabled car parking spaces, as well as for breaches of those controls to be prosecuted as a summary offence. Amending this act is therefore considered to be the most appropriate mechanism to prohibit paid parking at shopping centres.

As it is currently drafted, the bill provides that the owner of a regulated shopping centre parking area must not, without the approval of the chief executive officer of the council for the area in which the regulated shopping centre park area is situated, charge a person a fee for the parking of a vehicle in the regulated shopping centre parking area. Before the chief executive of the council grants an approval, the council must consult with the local community and subsequently pass a resolution recommending that the approval be granted.

A regulated shopping centre parking area is defined as an area provided on land by the owner for the parking of vehicles used by persons frequenting a major retail shopping centre. The definition of a 'major retail shopping centre' is:

…a retail shopping centre where the total lettable areas of all retail shops (whether leased or available for lease) in the retail shopping area is 34,000 m² or more, but does not include the retail shopping area within the Adelaide CBD;

The benchmark for size of a major retail shopping centre for where the prohibition of paid parking will apply has been set at 34,000 square metres. This benchmark will capture the majority of major shopping centres that are zoned in the urban activity centre.

The bill does not apply to a major retail shopping centre located within the Adelaide CBD to prevent businesses that provide car parking as their core business from being captured by the new provisions. Paid parking in the CBD is necessary to support the variety of functions and services that a city needs and are available, including entertainment, recreational businesses and shopping.

The definition of a regulated shopping centre parking area may capture owners of land who are not the owners of the major retail shopping centre, such as smaller shops, and this is required to prevent owners from restructuring their organisations to circumvent the prohibition. Should this present an issue, it is envisaged that an approval could be issued by a chief executive officer of a local council that allows for fees to be charged. It provides flexibility at the local level. This bill places power on paid parking in the hands of local communities through their representatives in local government, and I would like to thank the members of Newland, King, Wright, Florey and Torrens for their passionate advocacy in this area.

I commend the bill to the house and I seek leave to insert the explanation of clauses in Hansard without my reading it.

Leave granted.

EXPLANATION OF CLAUSES

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Short title

2—Commencement

These clauses are formal.

Part 2—Amendment of Private Parking Areas Act 1986

3—Amendment of section 4—Interpretation

This clause inserts certain definitions into section 4 of the principal Act for the purposes of the measure and amends existing definitions to include references to regulated shopping centre parking areas.

4—Insertion of section 13

This clause inserts new section 13:

13—Regulated shopping centre parking areas

This section prohibits the owner of a regulated shopping centre parking area (being an area provided for the parking of vehicles used by persons frequenting a major retail shopping centre) from charging a fee for the parking of a vehicle in such an area without the approval of the chief executive officer of the relevant council.

The chief executive officer may not grant an approval unless the council has recommended the granting of the approval by resolution.

Before passing a resolution, the council is required to consult with the community of the council on whether it is in the community interest for the proposed resolution to be passed.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. D.G. Pisoni.