by Shane Sody

The State Opposition has raised the stakes in the long-running push to get both State and World Heritage listing for your Adelaide Park Lands.

At the same time, Labor is being pressed to explain a lack of action, a full four years after the State Heritage Council recommended State Heritage listing.

Opposition leader David Speirs has announced that a commitment to pursue World Heritage Listing for your Park Lands will form part of the Liberal party's agenda for the State election in 2026.

Prior to the last State election in March 2022, both major parties made almost identical commitments that, if elected, each would "engage with" or "work with" the City Council on a World Heritage push.

In evaluating these commitments, APA noted at the time that offering to engage with the City Council was "welcome, but falls short of an offer of support."

Now, the Opposition leader, David Speirs has committed a future Liberal State Government to work with councils, heritage experts, conservationists, tourism operators and other stakeholders to advance a Park Lands world heritage bid to a national level if it won the 2026 state election.

Mr Speirs said his party would aim to take the proposal to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre “in the coming years”.

“Too often our park lands seem to be under threat,” he said. “It’s time to lift the bar on the protection of our precious park lands.”

Meantime, the long-awaited State Heritage listing of your Park Lands is still stalled.

It's been more than 13 years since your Park Lands were nominated for State Heritage listing. It's been more than five years since the public was consulted on the idea. This week marks a full four years since that nomination was formally assessed and the State Heritage Council recommended State Heritage listing.

In October 2022, the State Labor Government voted in Parliament AGAINST a Bill (moved by the Greens’ Robert Simms) that would have adopted that recommendation.

Remarkably, Deputy Premier Susan Close has pushed back on State Heritage listing, on the spurious grounds that the public, and the State Heritage Council both need to be involved.

We've written to Dr Close to point out that her pre-conditions have already been met. The public and the Heritage Council have had their say. The recommendation is in, and the public has been waiting in vain for action now, for many years.

Read our letter to the Deputy Premier. (PDF, 2pp, 103Kb)