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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-03-20 Daily Xml
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Tree Protection

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (14:37): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question without notice to the minister representing the Minister for Planning on the topic of protected trees on education sites.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: The YourSAy platform is currently consulting on 'Proposed Amendments to SA's Planning Regulations'. The relevant page on YourSAy states clearly that this is to implement:

1. the Housing Roadmap;

2. recommendations of the Expert Panel for the Planning System Implementation Review; and

3. required technical administrative changes.

Part of these proposed changes are the following:

19—Amendment of Schedule 4—Exclusions from definition of development—general

(1) Schedule 4, clause 18(1)—after paragraph (d) insert:

(da) the tree is on land on which a school, within the meaning of the Education and Early Childhood Services (Registration and Standards) Act 2011, is located or is proposed to be built;

This proposed regulatory change does not fit any of the categories that we have previously been told prompted the regulatory changes. Indeed, the expert review panel recommended quite the opposite: that the exemption to gain approval for the removal of regulated and significant trees be removed from Department of Education sites. Even as late as December 2024, this proposed change is missing from the Expert Panel Implementation Programme, published by PLUS.

As the proposed changes fail to meet the community expectations on tree protections and fly in the face of all the evidence about the critically important role played by urban trees in mitigating the impacts of climate change, could the minister please explain how it has come to pass that the government is now consulting on such a change?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (Minister for Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Autism, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:39): I thank the honourable member for her question, and I will be pleased to pass that one on to the Minister for Planning in the other house.

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