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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-05-13 Daily Xml
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RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT CODE

The Hon. DAVID WINDERLICH (14:44): Did the residential development code include an assessment of its impact on stormwater?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (14:44): The honourable member simply repeated the last question. I am happy to go through it all again if he does not understand it. I said that the government has been studying water sensitive urban design and that the residential code is neutral in relation to its impact on density. In fact, I repeat the point I just made: the vast majority of dwellings which will be approved under a residential code are those which would have been approved previously anyway; it is just that it will take longer and cost the applicant much more money. The whole purpose of the residential code is to get those straightforward applications out of the system.

To suggest that coverage on houses should be absolutely central to our planning policy is a nonsensical proposition; a whole range of issues is important. What we know about stormwater is that the best way—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: But you do nothing about it.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: We do a lot about it. One of the great pieces of mythology is a document the Liberal Party put out on its website 18 months ago that borrowed liberally from government documents. The whole Liberal policy is littered with information issued by this government through its Water Proofing Adelaide strategy.

This government has been doing a lot of work in relation to stormwater and, what is more, we have been funding not only stormwater but also other elements of re-use. What is unique about the opposition is that it proposes that we should be the first place in the world actually to drink it. Its policy is unlike that of everywhere else in the world: it suggests that we should drink stormwater.

This government believes that stormwater has its place, but one has to be very careful, given the toxins, the petrol, the chemicals and so on that wash off the road, what one does with that water. There is a big difference between the stormwater run-off in the Adelaide Hills, in protected catchments that go into our reservoirs, and the stormwater on the streets of Adelaide.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: We have been harvesting stormwater ever since the state was founded, but there is a difference between doing it in enclosed catchments, where water quality is guaranteed, and doing it in the streets where, if it has not rained for a long time, you get oil and all sorts of chemicals. One has to have a balance in how it is used, and this government has been doing all that.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: I am sure that, when this government releases its water security policy in the near future, it will be a revelation to members opposite, as well as to members of the public, as to just how much this government has done. It has done an enormous amount of work on planning in relation to water sensitive urban design, but the residential development code is quite marginal, peripheral and, one could say, almost negligible in relation to any impact it would have compared with what happened previously in relation to stormwater issues. There are much more important issues than that—and they are where this government has put its focus.

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