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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-10-16 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

PLANNING SA

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (14:19): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement about administrative arrangements

Leave granted.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: In June this year, the government embarked on the broadest range of planning reforms seen in South Australia in decades. These reforms are building on the current strengths of the South Australian planning system to deliver the most efficient and effective assessment and approval process in the nation. The government aims to create a planning system that will help improve home affordability, improve the amenity of our suburbs, help guarantee future economic prosperity, and ensure that all South Australians have the opportunity to benefit from future economic growth.

As part of these substantial reforms, I joined with the Minister for State/Local Government Relations (my colleague, the Hon. Gail Gago) today to announce the integration of several agencies working with local government and urban development planning into a single department. These agencies, currently operating within Primary Industries and Resources SA, as well as Planning SA, will be combined from next month to create a department of planning and local government.

The move to combine the agencies under one roof follows the establishment of Planning SA as a stand-alone department carved out of PIRSA in June this year in direct response to a key recommendation of the wide-ranging Planning and Development Review. The new department will support the Rann Labor government's implementation of a new and progressive planning system arising from the recommendations of that planning review.

The combination of planning and local government under one department will encourage a collaborative and successful working relationship between state and local governments within South Australia as we aim to implement these important reforms. The agencies to be merged in the new department comprise Planning SA, the Office for State/Local Government Relations, the Office for the Southern Suburbs, the Local Government Grants Commission, and the Outback Areas Community Development Trust.

As part of today's announcement, the Governor has approved the appointment of Ian Nightingale as Chief Executive to head the new department. Mr Nightingale, who takes up the appointment from 3 November, is currently the Executive Director of the Aquaculture Division within PIRSA, and he has worked within that department for the past eight years. He has extensive experience in strategic management and leading organisational change within the South Australian Public Service. He has also worked as chief executive of the Eyre Regional Development Board and as general manager of the Lincoln Cove Development Company.

I take this opportunity to acknowledge the substantial contribution made this year by Mr John Hanlon as acting chief executive of Planning SA in assisting the government in the task of implementing the extensive reforms identified by the planning review.

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