Caleb Bond: Why the secrecy over development and building decisions in SA?

IT’S a truly ugly building in the Adelaide CBD, approved without any public consultation — and we’ll get more of them if the panel in charge of large developments keeps meeting in secrecy, writes Caleb Bond.

IMAGINE a whopping great building was proposed to go up at the end of your street. You’d probably want to know what the deal is — and if it’s approved, how the powers at be came to their decision.

Well. Sorry, but you can’t.

Welcome to the secret state of South Australia where the most important decisions are made behind closed doors.

A few years ago, the State Government decided it needed its own outfit to deal with high-level developments, so it set up the Development Assessment Commission.

Then, for no particularly obvious reason and in typical public service style, they last year changed it to the State Commission Assessment Panel. At least it keeps the letterhead printers in business, I guess.

This group presides over developments worth more than $5 million, which is basically every major development in the state. Supermarkets, petrol stations, apartment buildings — nearly all of them come before this outfit.

The panel of seven is full of former public servants and people with ALP links, having been appointed by former Labor planning minister John Rau. They include Prospect Mayor and failed Labor candidate, David O’Loughlin, and Simone Fogarty, who was the Planning Department’s policy director under Mike Rann.

It has, by the way, approved more than 98 per cent of applications in the past five years.

So imagine someone wants to set up a big development on land behind your house.

The SCAP (what an awful name) has been charged with its assessment so you roll up to their meeting at 50 Flinders St one Thursday morning. Except the doors are locked. You’re not allowed to know how this panel makes its decision, or why it makes its decision. All you know is whether they said yes or no.

I have reported on a fair few developments and had plenty of dealings with the SCAP. While reporting for the former East Torrens Messenger, it one day held a rare open meeting — or at least open by their standards.

I went along to this meeting where locals were going to speak against a $150 million residential development in the foothills suburb of Woodforde. When the woman on the door asked why I was there and I told her I was from the media, she scurried to ask if I was allowed in.

I was told I could write as many notes as I wanted, but I couldn’t record or photograph anything.

Why? Who knows.

This is a crucial time in Adelaide’s development. As we adapt to the country’s growing population, we have to decide how we cope. There’s urban infill or there’s urban sprawl. It has never been more important for these decisions to open for all to see.

Council Assessment Panel meetings are open for all to see — as they should be. So for what possible reason is it justifiable for the government’s equivalent to meet in secret?

What exactly do they have to hide?

Look at that awful student accommodation building with the weird windows on Waymouth St. It went up almost overnight, rubber-stamped by the government’s assessment panel with no public consultation. It stinks.

The new student accommodation building on Waymouth St. Picture: Simon Cross

There are few issues as close to home as development. Most of us live where we live because we love it. We feel a sense of ownership over our suburb.

When someone comes in and wants to change the way it looks, we want to know what’s happening. That’s only fair.

The previous Labor government systematically ripped the guts out of development assessment on a local level. John Rau dreamt up a rule that aged-care developments worth more than $20 million could be sent straight to his desk for approval. No consultation, just give it the go-ahead.

It blew up in his face when Life Care tried to build nine-storey and seven-storey buildings in Glen Osmond and Joslin respectively. Residents hit the roof, thwarted the plans and Rau reversed the rules.

With a new government, it’s now up to the Liberals to prove they really care about transparency. As Planning Minister, Stephan Knoll has a golden opportunity to restore confidence that decisions are sound.

Lift the lid. Show us what’s really going on.