The Local Government Association has come out swinging after the Property Council claimed the state was languishing under a “lethargic local government-based planning system”.
The Property Council yesterday released its 2015 Development Assessment Report Card, which declared South Australia the country’s equal-second best performing state.
But the council’s SA executive director Daniel Gannon still took the opportunity to stick the boot into local government, declaring “South Australia writhes in pain when it comes to our state’s lethargic local government-based planning system”.
He said “despite the efforts of the State Government to bring about change … there needs to be a cultural shift in local government that creates a more proactive and engaging system, rather than the currently quite adversarial approach”.
But LGA President Mayor David Burgess has hit back, arguing the association has issued “no less than seven (recent) statements supporting the need for reform”.
“I totally reject their assertions that the LGA and local government as a sector has been slow to recognise there is a need for change in the planning and development system,” said Burgess.
“In fact, we agree that second best is not good enough and have called for red-tape cutting and reforms for several years … yet the Property Council seems determined to take cheap shots without allowing people the benefit of the facts.”
Burgess said the sector had been lobbying the State Government for “significant changes to the state’s planning system”, and early last year entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the property and development sector, including the Property Council, to work collaboratively on reform.
“Property Council Executive Director Daniel Gannon has been notably absent from these planning and infrastructure reform roundtables,” he said.
“If the Property Council truly wants to get on board with reform in Local Government then it would be a good start to talk to us…our door is open.”
Gannon told InDaily if there had been any roundtables since he took up the post last September, “I certainly haven’t been invited”.
