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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
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PLANNING STRATEGY

Mr SIBBONS (Mitchell) (14:25): My question is to the Minister for Planning. Can the minister inform the house about the community and industry responses received to government planning policies?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:25): I thank the member for Mitchell for his question. Throughout the year the government has been very active with planning reform in order to deliver the vision that we have for a more vibrant City of Adelaide. For example, we have had a rezone in the last year of the capital city inner area, we have had the inner metropolitan rezone, we have had the Riverbank Masterplan, the small venues licences which have been sensationally successful, the Parklands initiative which was announced a few weeks ago, and many other very important initiatives.

This government wants people, and a lot more people, living in and around the City of Adelaide, closer to the centre of the city; that is very important. We also have a very important vision for this city because it is about time the people of Adelaide started to think of the possibility of their city actually growing up instead of continuing to endlessly grow out, because that is unsustainable. It is not the future that any of us want for this state or for our families.

Industry groups are looking for certainty. That is what they are after—certainty. Community groups, whether they agree with what the government is doing or not, are also looking for certainty. The housing and construction industry is looking for certainty to support business investment and to deliver more jobs. Certainty does not exist in a policy vacuum. Even the government's critics are concerned at what might happen if there were to be a change of government.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: This is true.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: They chortle so, but it is true. I will give one example. An outfit called the Coalition for Planning Reform's constituent elements are the Community Alliance, the Conservation Council and the National Trust—hardly great supporters of many of the initiatives that I have had something to do with recently. How do they start their recent letter of 3 November? The headline says, 'Weatherill gets development visions, Libs need policy.' Let me read on through this, which I think does quite a fair job actually; it has a list at the back, and I won't show it to you because that might be a display, Mr Deputy Speaker. It has a list at the back of a number of the achievements the government has put through in the month of October and it nearly fills a whole page, so they are quite methodical in doing that. But when you actually read it, the interesting paragraph on the second page states:

'The government held a series of discussions with builders expressly to remove barriers to protect approvals, but it continues to ignore community concerns about the scale and extent of its pro-development policies,' Prof Fowler said.

That was Professor Rob Fowler. Then, he goes on:

'What do the Liberals say about this? It seems they are still formulating their own policies on planning and, meantime, offer no serious resistance to the Government's wave of initiatives.'

In other words, they don't have any policies. This is from a community group. What do industry groups say? Well, I have here the regional director's report of September 2013 from the Housing Industry Association, which talks about the Parnell bill which was in the upper house, and it expresses grave concern about the fact that the opposition supported this bill in the upper house, but Mr Harding was able to advise his members—

The Hon. I.F. EVANS: Point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker: the minister is unable to reflect on a vote of a house.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I will listen carefully to what the minister is saying.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Mr Harding said:

We understand that as a result of HIA submissions, the Liberal Party will not now support the Bill...

Mr PISONI: Point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker: can I draw your attention to the sessional orders regarding the length of time that a minister has to answer a question?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I am informed that he has six seconds left.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: This means that they say one thing and do another, and I have a whole lot more things here if somebody wants to ask me some more questions.

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