More haste, less Park Land

by Shane Sody

The process of getting a new law passed by Parliament is usually slow and cumbersome.

It can take months, sometimes years, for a proposed law to be drafted (a "Bill"), then introduced in Parliament, debated in Parliament, with amendments often moved and considered one by one.

The process is repeated separately in each of the two Houses of Parliament.

Getting a Bill through the upper house of South Australia’s State Parliament (the Legislative Council) requires co-operation between different political parties, because no party has a majority. Members of minor parties (the Greens, SA Best, and One Nation) can decide the fate of a Bill if there is disagreement between the major parties (Liberal and Labor).

However, the most serious new law affecting your Adelaide Park Lands went through all stages in the Legislative Council in less than three hours. On 1 November, the very first sitting day after the Bill had been introduced, the Women's and Children's Hospital Bill 2022 passed the Legislative Council, without any amendment.

The Greens and Liberals attempted to have the Bill referred to a Parliamentary Committee. The Greens Robert Simms and the Liberals’ Michelle Lensink also attempted to move amendments. All such attempts failed when SA Best and One Nation voted with the Government on every occasion.

Prior to this Parliamentary debate, we also asked both SA Best Members (Connie Bonaros and Frank Pangallo) and One Nation Member Sarah Game for an urgent meeting to discuss the Bill. None of them replied to us.

By Thursday 3 November, it had reached the final ("Committee") stage in the House of Assembly, and was scheduled to be finalised in mid-November.

What does this new law do?

Put simply, the new law allows two Ministers (the Minister for Health and the Minister for Police) to seize not just the Thebarton Police Barracks, but any of your Park Lands that they wish, bypassing the City Council entirely, for:

  • a new $3 billion Women's and Children's hospital, complete with any "support services" within your Park 27; and

  • a new facility for the Police Mounted Operations Unit, including the 40 staff of that Unit, in any Park.

It’s expected that within a few weeks, SA Police will identify their preferred location for new stables and office accommodation for the Mounted Police Unit.

Who was shut out?

This law was rushed through, while hundreds of voices were being raised up to express concerns about protecting your Adelaide Park Lands, and also protecting the heritage values of the 1917 Thebarton Police barracks within Park 27.

Hundreds of emails and letters were sent to Members of Parliament and the media.

The outgoing Lord Mayor, Sandy Verschoor, on behalf of the City Council, also asked the Parliament to delay consideration of the Bill "until such time as the impacts of the legislation are fully considered, tested and understood".

Kadaltilla /the Park Lands Authority (which has a legal duty to give advice on development in your Park Lands) was also sidelined. The Authority’s advice was not sought, nor obtained.

The Australian Institute of Architects joined with APA in suggesting alternative sites. https://www.architectureanddesign.com.au/news/aia-suggests-alternative-sites-for-adelaide-women

The Chair of the State Heritage Council, Keith Conlon, and the chair of the National Heritage Council, Ted Baillieu have been among the many suggesting that heritage values (of both your Park Lands and the Police Barracks) should not be discarded. See below.

The State Government's own consultants were instructed not to consider heritage values, nor Park Lands values. Nevertheless they suggested that an alternative site on the corner of West Terrace and North Terrace would offer "better connectivity".

One of the alternative sites, closer to the RAH. Read more here.

The speed with which this legislation has been processed, and the draconian effect that it will now have on a State Heritage place, and on your Park Lands has been well documented.

“I doubt whether many South Australians comprehend how extraordinary is the New Women’s and Children’s Hospital Bill 2022. Such unlimited opportunity has never been endorsed by parliament before. No wonder Labor rushed this Bill through, well knowing that this clause was a ‘try on’. It would never have been agreed to except and unless three MLCs were so indifferent, or so uncomprehending, of the enormity of the bluff. The police minister must be astonished at his good fortune." - John Bridgland.

“The Thebarton Police Barracks is not the only site where the WCH can be sited and to claim so is misleading and vexatious. It is pure scaremongering to suggest that there is any relationship between preservation of heritage and the ability to construct a new hospital. The two have no direct logical or causal relationship of any kind, excepting the one created by the current site proposed for the development”. - Nicolette Di Lernier

“It is ‘spin’ to suggest that the planned hospital will result in a net park land gain. Hospitals, parking lots, expand; they take more and more land, not less. Don’t be deceived, there are better alternatives.” – Malcolm Dixon


What Can You Do?

Despite passage of this new law, you can still contact MPs and the media, to:

In the longer term, there is a clearly a need for better legal protection for Adelaide’s green garland.

The Adelaide Park Lands Association will be seeking co-operation with the newly-elected City Council, and to forge broad alliances with like-minded individuals and groups.

Our medium-term goal will be to replace existing weak legislation, with better governance structures, to protect and restore Adelaide’s irreplaceable, world-unique garland.