30-YEAR PLAN FOR GREATER ADELAIDE

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN (15:00): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Urban Development and Planning a question regarding the 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide.

Leave granted.

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN: South Australia's population is continuing to grow at a time when our environment is under pressure from climate change and we face greater challenges to secure our water and energy needs. Will the minister explain the main objectives of the government's planning strategy for the next 30 years to address these challenges, and is he aware of any alternative proposals?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister Assisting the Premier in Public Sector Management) (15:01): There has been much talk recently about sustainable population growth. While this is more a debate about the pace of growth, there is one thing we can be assured of, and that is that South Australia's population will increase in the next 30 years. Whether the reach the two million mark in 2037, or later, short of a major catastrophe, South Australia's population will eventually reach this milestone. Therefore, it is only prudent to plan ahead for the demands that that will put on our state in terms of housing, jobs, services, infrastructure and the government's fiscal position.

In February this year, the government finalised its 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide after months of consultation with the community, local government, industry and other stakeholders. This strategic document provides a guide to ensuring that we can accommodate growth and development in the Greater Adelaide region during the next three decades. It provides a comprehensive road map for accommodating a growing population as well as providing more housing choices for our changing demographics. As well as outlining where people live, the plan looks at where jobs are likely to be located and then links this with billions of dollars of investment in public transport already earmarked by this government.

Fundamentally, the plan is about creating new dynamic communities where people will want to live and work, and one of the main objectives of the 30-year plan is to build on the existing strengths of the Greater Adelaide region and the features that make our city one of the most liveable places in the world. During the next three decades, Greater Adelaide is expected to grow by 560,000 people and 258,000 new homes, as well as creating 282,000 new jobs. This plan estimates that only 43,000 of the 282,000 new jobs to be created in the next 30 years will be within the City of Adelaide. The vast majority of those new jobs will be located in the northern, western and southern regions. We can achieve this by putting more jobs in the regions and around mixed-use developments that are contiguous to public transport.

By focusing growth along transit corridors, we will also ensure that Adelaide's distinctive urban character can be retained, leaving about 80 per cent of metropolitan Adelaide's character largely unchanged, as a result of the 30-year plan's implementation. The plan will guide where people live and work. It will ensure that, by the end of 30 years, up to 70 per cent of new dwellings will be built within the current urban area, with a focus on the better use of our city's transport corridors. That means that we will be able to keep a check on urban sprawl.

Where there are greenfield developments, they are better integrated into the existing urban infrastructure located near existing townships and public transport. By identifying and consolidating growth in these areas, the plan promotes a more comprehensive and efficient development which, in the long term, will prevent the alienation of valuable farmland by reducing the past practice of smaller ad hoc subdivisions.

We have been busy in the last four years. After a major planning review, a growth investigation study of potential land supply to cater for new housing and employment land and a comprehensive consultation process, the government now has a 30-year plan for guiding development in the Greater Adelaide region.

The honourable member asked if I had heard of any alternative proposals. Well, up to this week I would have said no but, while I often hear from those seated opposite that they are opposed to providing housing for Adelaide's growing population, five months after the publication of the 30-year plan I was struggling to find one instance of the opposition providing support for strategic urban planning.

That was until this week, when the member for Schubert finally provided an answer to where the Liberals would like Adelaide's growing population to be housed. The answer is: Sedan, Cambrai and Monarto. I do not want to knock the member for Schubert; I have great respect for him, and at least he has the courage to nominate somewhere, which is more than I can say for the opposition spokesman on urban development and planning.

Is it seriously the position of the Liberal Party that, rather than build new development on the urban fringes around existing regional centres such as Mount Barker, Gawler, Roseworthy and Virginia, we should say, 'No, enough is enough; if you want affordable housing, you can look over the ranges to Sedan and Cambrai'? Don't get me wrong, Sedan and Cambrai are lovely towns, but is Sedan located on a major public transport route? Are they close to growing employment opportunities in the northern and Barossa regions? Are they close to existing infrastructure?

The 30-year plan identifies Gawler East, Roseworthy and Concordia because they provide the best opportunities for further extending the existing metropolitan rail network. They are close to the soon-to-be completed Northern Expressway, and they are located near employment opportunities throughout the northern and Barossa regions.

I understand that the member for Schubert was moved to nominate Sedan and Cambrai as potential growth centres as he was concerned about the prospect of developing agricultural land within the Barossa Valley. I want to point out that the township boundaries within the Barossa Valley remain pretty much unchanged within the 30-year plan. By identifying areas of significant primary production during the process of finalising the 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide, they can be better protected.

Consolidating growth near existing town centres promotes more comprehensive and efficient development. As we do that, we reduce the past practice of smaller ad hoc subdivisions. In the long term, this will prevent the alienation of our most valuable farmland within the Greater Adelaide region.

I don't want to be too harsh on the member for Schubert because, as I said, I have a lot of respect for him. At least he has tried to put his mind to the problem of accommodating new housing as our population grows—which is more than I can say for some of his colleagues, whose natural instinct is to take the easy policy path to resist change. While that is a strategy that might play well in town hall meetings, it is the kind of parochial small-mindedness that will ultimately condemn South Australians to a future of unplanned and uncoordinated growth.