Malinauskas Government reshuffle opens new chance to put councils in their place | David Penberthy

The reshuffle of the Malinauskas Government gives the state and opportunity to put the most frustrating level of government in its place, writes David Penberthy.

To borrow a line from John Cleese in the opening scene of the parrot sketch, I wish to register a complaint.

My council rubbish bin at Aldinga has a broken handle and no wheels.

When I take it out on rubbish day I need to kind of hug it and frogmarch it over the road.

The fact that it hasn’t disintegrated into the compactor when the garbos come every Monday is a mystery of engineering.

I rang Onkaparinga Council a couple of months back and was told to log the offending bin’s details on the online portal and that it would be replaced the following week.

“Your request will be reviewed by our team and assigned for action”, the follow-up text reassured. The new bin never arrived, but I did receive a mysterious text from the council saying: “Your request has now been closed.”

I am not sure if “closed” in this instance means completed, rejected or ignored, but the old bin is battling on in its clunky form.

In the global scheme of things this is one of the least important things in the world.

But it does seem a good entry point for a piece on local government, especially as our friends at the Onkaparinga Council announced this week they are seeking a 6.8 per cent rate increase this year, having originally sought an 8.6 per cent increase last year which they subsequently and sheepishly revised down to 7.9 per cent amid public outcry.

Joe Szakacs switches his police portfolio for local government in the Malinuaskas Government’s new look ministry. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Morgan Sette

The net effect of these twin increases will be an increase for Onkaparinga ratepayers of 14.7 per cent in just 12 months, way above the rate of inflation, with the added nasties of new charges for mattress removals, doubling the price of second bins, and increased fees for local sporting clubs.

Ratepayers in this predominantly working-class, semirural council might reflect wistfully on how the parliament had its chance to introduce rate capping last term, in line with a clear-cut pre-election promise by Steven Marshall, but rejected it for reasons that remain deleterious in a hip-pocket sense.

What is clear is that across the board many councils act like a total law unto themselves, letting the good work of their sensible staff come undone by the whims and obsessions of elected members.

To that end the reshuffle announced by Peter Malinauskas this week provides the state with a chance to show who is actually in charge.

The departure of the genial Geoff Brock as local government minister, along with the creation of a new beefed-up housing portfolio headed by replacement local government minister Joe Szakacs, should provide the state with more clarity when it comes to the key issue of development amid a housing shortage and rental squeeze.

I had a chuckle to myself a few weeks ago when it emerged that the Adelaide City Council wants to have a greater say over major CBD developments by raising the threshold for development approvals by the State Commission Assessment Panel.

Presently the SCAP can only assess developments worth more than $10 million in the City of Adelaide but the council wants that figure increased to $50 million.

The ACC says its relationship with the SCAP is arm’s length. People are right to worry as to whether the arm is long enough.

Or to put it another way, why would anyone give any say over the city’s biggest projects to the same outfit who reckon the mesh fence used by the Adelaide Comets soccer club was a little bit too high?

Or which stopped an indigenous childrens’ football program from going ahead, which won’t back the upgrade of crumbling, unsafe facilities used by the many parklands-based sports clubs and schools, and which knowingly sent itself further into financial strife by rejecting the Adelaide Football Club’s sensible plan to replace a clapped-out aquatic centre with a brand new smaller one.

The Crows provide the most dispiriting example of local government at work, or rather not at work.

The AFC might be the most popular organisation in SA but it has been treated like a stateless pariah as it meanders the suburbs looking for a place to call home.

It faces multimillion-dollar increases in the cost of its headquarters project on account of the ACC’s initial intransigence, the subsequent and lengthy need to satisfy resident concerns through the West Torrens Council, and now an eleventh-hour curveball from Charles Sturt Council denying the SANFL a new home at West Lakes.

An artist’s impression of the proposed Adelaide Football Club HQ at Thebarton. Picture: Supplied

Imagine Dallas doing this to the Cowboys or Manchester doing this to Man U.

The Crows suffering is one thing, what matters more is making sure the average punter has a place to call home.

It is on housing where local government is letting everyone down.

It is hilarious that the Greens Party can bemoan a lack of housing and demand greater action amid the rental squeeze, when councils are filled with Green-aligned councillors agitating against any form of modest medium density development.

Mitcham Council is an excellent case in point, where current zoning restrictions mean a large number 700 sqm to 1000 sqm blocks are unable to be subdivided.

None of these decisions should be in the hands of local government.

We need a cogent statewide plan to deal with such questions, rather than leaving them the preserve of people who toddle off to a meeting every second Tuesday because they’ve always been interested in “getting involved”.

The other thing the new minister should do – put a red line through any plans to embolden and legitimise local government by fining us for failing to vote in council elections.

Most normal people have neither the time, inclination or capacity to work out who they’re voting for and what they stand for anyway.

We have other interests and simple needs.

Some of just want a pair of wheels on our sulo bin.