ePlanning System

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (14:39): My question is to the Minister for Planning. Will the minister provide support to local government to assist them with the costs of administering the ePlanning system? With your leave, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TELFER: The President of the Local Government Association of South Australia wrote to Minister Champion on 30 June, advising that a number of councils are finding ePlanning levies excessive and require support.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. N.D. CHAMPION (Taylor—Minister for Trade and Investment, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Planning) (14:39): Yes.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. N.D. CHAMPION: What we have done is ask the expert panel that's being presided over by Mr John Stimson to have a look at the ePlanning system, and that includes costs and fees in part of it. The Local Government Association understands that that expert panel is currently meeting and will report in the new year, and I fully expect that costs will be raised as part of that. At the most recent reports I have had from the department, and my most recent engagements with the Local Government Association, there has not been a high level of complaint about the ePlanning system as it's currently configured.