LAND MANAGEMENT CORPORATION

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (15:04): I have a further supplementary question. Is the minister aware of the significant amounts of prime farming land in the Roseworthy and Freeling areas that have been purchased by housing developers as we speak?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (15:04): The challenge is to find an area in Adelaide where we can grow that does not have prime farming land. I know one of lesser quality was Buckland Park, and the Hon. Mark Parnell has been attacking that and saying that we should not build there. Various people have said that we should not build, whenever there is a proposition that Adelaide expand or that we build somewhere. Even though we would like to get that down to just 30 per cent at the fringes of our growth, wherever we go there are problems.

As I said, the challenge is to find land which has minimal economic impact and which is convenient to transport corridors. One area where a development plan is being considered concurrently is Gawler East, which was added to the boundary. That land was not of particularly high value, but the reality is that there is not a lot of land left on the fringes of Adelaide that you could not regard as being of high economic value.

If you go further south you have the McLaren Vale wine region, if you go east of Gawler you hit the Barossa Valley, and if you go north of the current area you hit the Virginia market garden area. So, we have to find where the growth can be accommodated in the best possible way in terms of keeping affordability, ensuring our city is sustainable, dealing with less car dependency and other factors, one of which is minimising the impact on quality agricultural land and also on native vegetation where that is an issue. All those factors are part of it. If someone could find me an area that ticks every box and does not involve a compromise between those objectives, I would like to hear about it.