Development Assessment

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL (14:52): I am horrified, Mr President. Thank you for your protection. I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills representing the Minister for Planning a question about significant development assessment in South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL: A number of councils have received letters from Mr James Hallion, the state Coordinator-General, advising that he has called in a number of developments to be assessed by the Development Assessment Commission rather than by local council development assessment panels. These developments consist of five On The Run retail outlets in five different council areas proposed by the Peregrine Corporation. The outlets are at Fullarton, Salisbury Downs, Tanunda, Port Pirie and Aldinga. I understand that some of these are new outlets and others are rebranded or redeveloped older petrol stations. I also understand that there are a further 17 outlets that will be given similar treatment.

The Coordinator-General's purported authority for this decision is a new regulation dealing with developments valued at over $3 million. However, it is clear that none of the proposed On The Run outlets is valued at more than $3 million. It is also a dubious judgement that a petrol station and convenience store is of 'economic significance to the state', which is another criterion for the use of the new regulations. Apparently, the state Coordinator-General has sought to strip councils of their decision-making responsibilities by pretending that these five petrol stations and convenience stores are a single project valued at more than $3 million. Such an interpretation would be unlikely to survive a challenge in the Environment, Resources and Development Court. My questions of the minister are:

1. Does the minister consider that a petrol station and convenience store is of such economic significance to the state that it deserves special treatment and removal from the normal planning process?

2. Does the minister support dodgy accounting practices that attempt to aggregate what are clearly separate developments?

3. What does this approach mean for the assessment of residential developments where a number of large housing companies routinely have more than $3 million worth of development applications pending at any one time? Will these companies also be given similar preferential treatment?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:54): I thank the member for his important questions and I will refer them to the Minister for Planning from another place and bring back a response.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr McLachlan—and also very gallant, I must add, and stoic.