Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-06-17 Daily Xml

Contents

URBAN LAND SUPPLY

The Hon. M. PARNELL (14:58): I have a supplementary question. Can the minister advise whether any new residential development on the urban fringe within an extended urban growth boundary will also be transit-oriented development?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Police, Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning) (14:59): There is obviously a capacity for that. As I indicated last year when asked questions about the extension of the urban growth boundary in the vicinity of Gawler, one of the reasons I gave was that, in relation to Gawler East, for example, in the Concordia area, there is an existing rail line. Obviously, there is the potential at some stage in the future for transit-oriented development in those places as they are ideal. Of course, what we have to do—and this will require multi-million or several billion dollars worth of investment over the next few years—is to electrify the system, so that it will be quick and clean enough to make it attractive.

Once the system has been electrified there is then the capacity, of course, for further extension. But, before we can do the electrification we have to replace the sleepers in the system, which, in some cases, go back to the 1950s. That involves several hundred million dollars of investment. All that is happening under the Rann government. This is the transport revolution which will in turn, through planning, lead to a much better, more liveable city.