by Shane Sody

State Opposition leader David Speirs has promised that Liberal MPs will move in State Parliament, during May, for an independent inquiry into at least one of the State Government’s six recent attacks on your Adelaide Park Lands.

Mr Speirs and the Liberal MP for Bragg, Jack Batty have written to the Adelaide Park Lands Association to make several promises about your Adelaide Park Lands.

Most of the promises relate to what a future Liberal State Government would do, if returned to office at the next State election, due in 2026. (See the list below.)

But one promise might well come to fruition much earlier, perhaps within the next month.

In their letter, Mr Speirs and Mr Batty say that after Parliament resumes on 23 May 2023, the Liberal Party will move in the Legislative Council (where the Labor Government does not have a majority) to establish a Select Committee.

Their letter does not suggest any Terms of Reference for the proposed Select Committee, so this would become a matter of debate; with the minor parties (Greens, SA Best, One Nation) able to exercise some influence on the proposal.

The letter from Mr Speirs and Mr Batty suggests that such a Committee could:

“…make inquiries into the process that the Government has used to select Park 21 West as the site for the proposed SAPOL Police barracks and horses, and could make recommendations about alternate sites.”

We have urged Park Lands supporters to (among other things) write to all 22 members of the Legislative Council urging the creation of a Select Committee. This promise by Mr Speirs and Mr Batty is a welcome development but in our response to Mr Speirs and Mr Batty we have suggested that the proposed Select Committee should inquire into more than just the latest attack on your Park Lands.

The Adelaide Park Lands Act 2005 has proved totally ineffective at protecting your Open Green Public Park Lands.

*The Act is ineffective at protecting your Park Lands.*

Therefore any Inquiry must look at a wider range of options to better protect your Park Lands from not just the latest single assault on Golden Wattle Park / Mirnu Wirra (Park 21 West) but from future attacks as well.

We’ve suggested in a response to Mr Speirs and Mr Batty that they should also be consulting the City Council, Kadaltilla/ Park Lands Authority, Kaurna community representatives and others about their proposed Select Committee Inquiry.

Other promises for a “future Liberal Government”

The letter from Mr Speirs and Mr Batty promises that a future Liberal Government would:

work in partnership with the City of Adelaide, to provide the financial and technical resourcing to advance the process for pursuing UNESCO World Heritage listing;
establish a sub-committee of Green Adelaide, to drive biodiversity and conservation across the Park Lands; and
increase the footprint of the Park Lands by 5%, through the consolidation of existing buildings and by removing unnecessary hard surfaces.

Six attacks in a year

The State Government is purchasing 524 properties to upgrade South Road, but so far it has refused to purchase even a single brownfield property for any of the infrastructure that it wants to build, without your consent, on your Park Lands.

These are the attacks on your Park Lands authorised by the current State Government since it was elected in March 2022.