Inner Metropolitan Area Development

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL (17:07): I move:

That the regulations under the Development Act 1993 concerning Inner Metropolitan Area Development—Relevant Authority—Development Assessment Commission, made on 28 November 2013 and laid on the table of this Council on 6 May 2014, be disallowed.

Members may recall that in November last year, prior to the state election, the government introduced the Development (Inner Metropolitan Area Development) Variation Regulations 2013. These regulations transferred responsibility for the assessment of development applications for buildings that exceed four storeys in height in certain zones—for example, the urban corridor zone—from local council development assessment panels to the Development Assessment Commission.

The regulations affect the following councils: the Adelaide City Council, the City of Burnside, the Corporation of the City of Norwood, Payneham and St Peters, the City of Prospect, the Corporation of the City of Unley and the City of West Torrens. The regulations also create a new body, the Inner Metropolitan Development Assessment Committee, and they also modify statutory referral and consultation arrangements.

In the lead-up to the state election, I committed the Greens to moving a disallowance motion when parliament resumed. I put this on the parliamentary agenda last month and have now moved the motion formally. I am now in the process of writing to all the affected councils to seek their views. Once I have heard back from them I will put their positions on the record before bringing this motion to a vote.

I should say that I am confident that the motion will ultimately pass because media reports show that most of the affected councils are unhappy about having these powers taken away without consultation and without any good reason being offered. The conversations I have had already with council officers indicate that most, if not all, councils feel this way.

I also expect that the opposition will get behind this motion because it was the position that they took to the election. I refer members to the media release issued by opposition leader Steven Marshall on Friday 14 February 2014 where, under the heading, 'Liberals will return planning powers to councils', he said:

A Marshall Liberal Government will return planning powers to inner metropolitan councils after they were ripped away by the Weatherill Labor Government at the end of 2013. The State Liberal proposal would see decision making powers returned to inner-metropolitan councils for buildings up to eight storeys…Under the State Liberal proposal, councils will have the ability to refer applications to the State Government's Development Assessment Commission if they do not have the capacity to process an application.

So, in order to give effect to that position, disallowing these regulations is the first step. I am also pleased that during the election campaign the Liberals picked up on one of the Greens' other ideas, and that was that councils should also be granted access to the state government's design review process without any additional charge being imposed on the council. That initiative is important because it levels the playing field between councils and the Development Assessment Commission by providing that both decision-making bodies have access to the same professional advice.

I intend to bring this motion to a vote once I have had formal feedback from affected councils and communities. In those circumstances, I now seek leave to conclude my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.