House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-31 Daily Xml

Contents

Brompton Gasworks Independent Review

The Hon. N.D. CHAMPION (Taylor—Minister for Trade and Investment, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Planning) (14:09): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. N.D. CHAMPION: The former Brompton Gasworks site is a significant parcel of land located on the fringe of Adelaide's CBD covering 5.81 hectares and is subject to a pre-election commitment by the former Marshall Liberal government to award preferred proponent status to MAB Corporation. Prior to the March election, the Labor opposition made a commitment to release the criteria and weightings for the development of the former Brompton Gasworks site to allow public transparency into the process. On 4 May, the state government fulfilled that part of our election commitment.

The government now moves to the next stage of this process with the appointment of AECOM to conduct the review into the decision of the former Liberal government to award preferred proponent status to the MAB Corporation. AECOM are a global multinational engineering firm specialising in supplying technical knowledge in the areas of design, engineering, construction and management, which covers the entire project life cycle. They have a deep understanding of the challenges of remediating heavily polluted parcels of land.

I have met with AECOM and stressed their authority to independently inquire into this process. The review is independent of government and will make its own determinations focusing on the process and suitability of the project announced by the former Treasurer the Hon. Rob Lucas. The review's scope of the review will compare the criteria used against:

the original government approval of the Bowden project for both consistency and appropriateness;

the master planning and market strategy of this project;

the appropriateness of the methodology and the cost of the remediation strategy;

consistency with the objectives of the 30 Year Plan for Greater Adelaide, which includes the use of the land, community considerations and the Planning and Design Code;

the economic and community benefit is appropriately considered; and

the 20 year State Infrastructure Strategy.

The review will aim to be completed within the six to eight-week time frame as previously advised to this chamber. Once the review is complete, the government will consider the report. The Department for Trade and Investment will manage the review, ensuring the appropriate separation for this process from the original decision-making agency in Renewal SA. This is yet another important election commitment met by this government. AECOM have now started their review, and we await the outcome of their findings.