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Development industry leader takes PS role

Oct 28, 2014
Urban development on Adelaide's southern suburban fringe. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Urban development on Adelaide's southern suburban fringe. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

The immediate past president of the peak body for property developers has joined the South Australian public service in a senior planning role.

Stuart Moseley, who finished a two-year term as SA president of the Urban Development Institute of Australia in September, has been appointed General Manager, Information and Strategy within the Development Division of the Department of Planning Transport and Infrastructure (DPTI).

Moseley is Principal at property services company Connor Holmes, which helped develop the State Government’s 30-year Plan for Greater Adelaide.

A department spokesperson said that Moseley would be responsible for implementation and review of the 30-year plan, and would be charged with making sure the state’s planning and development systems were nationally competitive, among other tasks.

The appointment comes at a crucial time for South Australia’s planning system, with an expert panel due to make its recommendations on major reform by December 2014.

Despite Moseley’s recent strong identification with the private sector, much of his early career was in government.

From 1996 to 2001 he was director of development policy in the South Australian planning bureaucracy, and he has also worked in the Commonwealth and NSW public service. His career also included a stint as the chief executive of the Adelaide City Council.

As UDIA president, he kept largely above the day-today debate about planning and development.

However, in July last year, InDaily reported on a speech he delivered to a UDIA lunch, attended by Planning Minister John Rau and his Opposition

Stuart Moseley. Photo: udia.com.au

Stuart Moseley. Photo: udia.com.au

counterpart Vickie Chapman, in which he said a “messy” approach to  infrastructure charges would make homes more unaffordable.

Moseley accused the Government of having a “policy vacuum” in this area, with the goal posts and the “whole playing field” constantly shifting.

“The area continues to be shrouded in uncertainty,” Moseley said. “It is slowing the land supply pipeline and costing the sector time and money at a time when we can least afford it.”

He said the UDIA had presented the Government with a proposal for addressing its concerns and a clear position was now needed.

“In the absence of a clear position, the policy vacuum is being filled in all sots of ways, not all of which are going to be positive for this industry.”

Several councils, for example, had announced separate rates to pay for infrastructure on new allotments and SA Water had proposed a State-wide infrastructure charge on all new lots.

Moseley said these practices raised the prospect of “intergenerational inequity”, where the first owners of new blocks would pay the brunt of infrastructure costs, while subsequent owners wouldn’t.

“We think the lack of certainty in this space is a significant threat to housing affordability. Infrastructure already accounts for $70,000 or more on the cost of a greenfield block and the more pressure that is placed on that from upfront, lump sum charges, the more risk there is that housing will be pushed beyond the reach of even more South Australians.”

Connor Holmes played a controversial role in the work that prepared the way for the massive expansion of Mt Barker.

The company prepared the Growth Investigation Areas report for Mt Barker and other parts of greater Adelaide, at the same time as it was working for companies that wanted to develop land near Mt Barker.

Moseley will begin with the department on 17 November.

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