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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-03-26 Daily Xml
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URBAN PLANNING PROGRAM

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (14:44): My question is to the Minister for Urban Development and Planning. Is the minister aware of the 60th anniversary of the University of South Australia's urban planning program, the first such course in Australia, and its contribution to standards of urban planning in this state?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (14:44): I thank the honourable member for his question. Indeed, I am aware of the 60th anniversary of planning, and I believe it is important that this council recognises such an important milestone. South Australia has a proud and distinguished history of planning beginning, of course, with the grand vision established by Colonel William Light.

The government recognises the importance of this legacy and the role of good planning and sustainable building design in promoting growth and development in South Australia. The necessity of good planning that at one level provides a strategic framework for all government decision making while at another level ensures simplicity for home owners and builders was one of the hallmarks of the recently conducted planning review. This government is currently in the process of rolling out many of the reforms suggested by that review, from the big picture 30 year plan for Greater Adelaide to the red tape cutting changes to the residential development assessment system.

Strategic planning requires high standards of its practitioners, and that is why I would like to acknowledge the 60th anniversary of the University of South Australia's planning program. Many of this state's planners in both state and local government are graduates of the University of South Australia's School of Natural and Built Environments.

Spanning six decades, today's program had its genesis as a town planners course in 1949. Fittingly, Adelaide, with its worldwide reputation as a well planned city, was ahead of Sydney and Melbourne in establishing such a course; I think it was later in that year that the other cities followed Adelaide.

The 60th anniversary of this program is being marked this year by a series of public lectures, which began in February with an international symposium on the future of planning education. The commemoration has continued with a recent address by a University College London professor, Sir Peter Hall, which was attended by more than 400 people, including me.

Other lectures scheduled for later this year will feature Stephen Hains, City Manager of the City of Salisbury, a very well-known planner and a former head of planning, and Dr Ian McPhail, Sustainability Commissioner for Victoria and a former director-general of South Australia's department of environment and planning under then deputy premier, Don Hopgood.

This year also marks the 25th anniversary of the appointment of Professor Stephen Hamnett to the program as head of planning in 1984. Professor Hamnett, who was a member of the steering committee of the Bannon government's planning review, is a commissioner of the Environment, Resources and Development Court.

The UniSA program has produced more than 1,000 undergraduate and postgraduate planners since its formation, with 14 gaining a PhD in planning. Several alumni have moved interstate and overseas or have become current or past chief executive officers of councils in South Australia, including Stuart Moseley (former chief executive of the Adelaide City Council and a member of the recent planning review) and Mario Barone (Chief Executive Officer of the City of Norwood Payneham and St Peters). He also assists the state government in his current role as chair of the Development Policy Advisory Committee. I also point out that our colleague in this council, the Hon. Mark Parnell, is another old scholar, completing a Master of Regional and Urban Planning.

The program began at the former South Australian School of Mines and Industries in February 1949. As the Minister for Mineral Resources Development, I do not find that a strange birthplace for a planning course. Strategic planning, based on the economic growth generated by new mines, is an issue which I face today; and one just has to look at the growth of Roxby Downs and nearby Andamooka to realise how a mining project can provide challenges to town planning. The School of Mines later folded into the South Australian Institute of Technology which, along with colleges of advanced education, then merged to become UniSA.

I am pleased to inform the honourable member that the state government continues to focus on developing world's best practice in urban planning. The Department of Planning and Local Government works closely with local government, communities and experts in the field to provide strategic planning at every level, from residential development to South Australia's land use strategy. In order to ensure we can continue to do that, South Australia needs trained graduates who can assist in mapping out and implementing a vision. I congratulate UniSA and all those involved in the planning program on its first 60 years and wish them well in the remaining events to mark this milestone.

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