Legislative Council Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3) 51 3 Parliament of South Australia Legislative Council published Question Time Adelaide Hills Housing ADELAIDE HILLS HOUSING The Hon. M. PARNELL Legislative Council ADELAIDE HILLS HOUSING The Hon. M. PARNELL (14:48): As a supplementary question, can the minister advise whether any private planning consultants are involved in the preparation of the development plan amendment and, if so, are any of those private consultants also known to represent the interests of property developers with interests in the Mount Barker area? The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY Legislative Council Minister for Mineral Resources Development Minister for Urban Development and Planning Minister for Small Business ADELAIDE HILLS HOUSING The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (14:48): The fact is that, as we have discussed in the past couple of days, there is a small number of planning companies that specialise as planning consultants in this city. They do work for the government, and they do work for the industry. What is important is that they do not have any involvement in relation to ownership of the land concerned in respect of the work being done. It is inevitable, in a city like Adelaide, that those consultants will do work both for the government and, at times, for the private sector. I am not quite sure what the honourable member suggests would be an alternative for the sort of work that the government does. Private developers may want to sponsor a development plan amendment because, if they did not do so, it might take years to go through the normal council processes. If we did not have that, then no development would occur. The Greens might think that is a good thing, but I do not think the rest of the community would think that. If proper consideration is to be given, of course the government must have oversight of it. As I said yesterday, it is not uncommon with those sorts of proposals that consultants will do it. We are fortunate in this city to have a small group of highly qualified consultants in the planning area who do this work—and do it professionally—but it is important that the work is vetted by government. They do the work, but it is vetted by all the various government agencies; and that is inevitable. If one were to bring in developers from interstate who had no connection with local property developers—although most of them are national bodies anyway—I am sure that members opposite would attack the government because it did not give the contracts to local people. In any case, those local people would have the expertise. What is important when local planning consultant companies are involved in that sort of consideration is that it is made quite clear up front that it is a development plan amendment—whether it comes from the minister or a council, it should be clear who is doing the work—and any connections with developers should be well known. Secondly, of course, that work needs to be properly vetted by the government—and it is.