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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-05-01 Daily Xml
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COMMUNITY ALLIANCE MEETING

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:27): I rise to advise the house of a public meeting that was held on Monday night this week at the Norwood Town Hall, convened by a group called Community Alliance under the stewardship of Rob Crocker. A number of members who attended would be familiar to the house, including Mayor Kirsten Alexander and other leaders in the community. Why did these people meet?

They met to hear from members of the parliament, including the Minister for Planning, myself, Senator Xenophon, the Hon. Mark Parnell in another place, followed by a panel of experts in the urban development field. It was an impressive meeting. Why did they meet specifically? Because they wanted to be able to find some answers as to how we can have better development and planning laws in South Australia, where the general community can effectively be consulted and able to participate in the development of plans for their community.

It was overwhelmingly impressive to see a representation of almost every suburb or district within metropolitan Adelaide. The government has issued a 30-year plan—we are familiar with that—for the development of metropolitan Adelaide, and there are very good aspects of that plan. We on this side of the house think that it is necessary to have a plan, but with a review of population data from the ABS. Obviously that needs to be reviewed. However, under the act, the government has determined that it will have structure plans to again provide detail to the planning authorities, which is essentially for local councils to be able to administer the planning processes in the state.

What has been very concerning is that under the current Minister for Planning's regime, particularly in the last 18 months, there has been a reigning of ministerial DPAs, some with interim control development impositions superseding or in fact wiping aside local government's autonomy in relation to their normal process. Having set up a structure, some of which is very good, to ensure that we have a proper process, the government has then bypassed some councils. It is concerning, for example, that in what is now called the Inner Metropolitan Growth Development Plan Amendment, which is to cover the border around the Adelaide City area, only three councils have been left with any say themselves in the administration of the development of a plan—that is Norwood Payneham and St Peters, Unley and West Torrens.

I have spoken to a number of the councillors and representative personnel in the planning divisions of those councils and each have indicated to me that, within the current legal obligations of accommodation of growth, diversity and density within their districts, each of them are able to accommodate that within the rules set under the 30-year plan. To have imposed upon them an obligation to have high-density dwellings, for example, up to 10 storeys high and higher in some regions, is of concern to the local community who say to the government, 'You have set the rules. You have identified the people who are supposed to implement them and now you have this idea where you want to dictate how this is going to occur.' So, the public are outraged.

I think the government actually understand how serious this situation is, that the public do not want to be ignored. They do want to participate right from the start of the development that is going to happen in their area. Overwhelmingly, I report to the house, certainly in my own district, there has been an embracing of higher density and urban infill as we know, and of the redevelopment and reinvigoration of their districts.

They are looking for good design and a way of best utilising their infrastructure, but they just want a commitment from the government that they are able to participate in how that is developed and that they have commitments of support from levels of government as to parking, transport, public transport, power, water, schools, clinics—all of the services that are necessary to go with an area.

Again using my own district, just on the weekend many members would have seen the sewage that exploded into a street—raw sewage into an inner metropolitan suburb in a high residential area. This is the sort of thing that needs to be done to ensure that infrastructure goes into planning.

Time expired.

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