Legislative Council: Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Contents

Development Application Register

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL (15:02): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Treasurer, representing the Minister for Planning, about defective and deficient public registers.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL: Much has been made of the government's new planning system, which is scheduled to come into full effect for the bulk of South Australians on 19 March. However, one aspect of the new planning system that has been in operation for some time is the planning portal, which includes an online database of planning approvals.

However, research into that database today reveals that some of the most important information, including copies of decision notification forms, is unavailable. The reason, according to the technicians at the Parliamentary Network Support Group whom I consulted, is that the security certificate has expired, and without a valid certificate no web browser is going to load the documents. In fact, what you get instead is a red message, warning you that, 'Attackers might be trying to steal your information from apps.planning.sa.gov.au.'

On another part of the planning website is a page for the Coordinator-General, which is supposed to show details of projects worth nearly $4 billion that have bypassed the normal planning system and been ticked off by the head of the minister's department. When you search that register online you find that it hasn't been updated for six weeks and is hopelessly out of date, with many important projects missing. My questions of the minister are:

1. When will the government fix its own planning website so that its public register of development applications provides actual documents, rather than warnings about identity theft?

2. Will the minister instruct the State Coordinator-General to keep her online development register up to date as well?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:04): I will refer the honourable member's question to the minister and bring back a reply.