The Greens and the Liberal Party have joined up on at least one issue in State Parliament: protection of your Adelaide Park Lands.
For years, successive State Governments (Liberal and Labor) have refused to act on a 2018 recommendation of the State Heritage Council, that your Park Lands should be protected as a State Heritage Area.
Last year, the Greens’ Robert Simms brought a Bill to State Parliament, which would, if passed, give effect to the Heritage Council’s recommendation.
That Bill successfully passed the upper house (Legislative Council) in October 2022, with the support of the Greens, Liberals, and SA Best.
At the time, it was opposed by the Labor members. See our story of 21 October 2022: “Labor U-turns on Heritage”.
The Greens’ Robert Simms, MLC
Liberal Member for Bragg, Jack Batty MP
Now, that Bill is before the lower house, the House of Assembly, where Labor has a large majority.
There is still a chance that the ALP might start to read the room, might start to Love Your Park Lands and might support this Bill.
But to judge from the Labor Government’s record and rhetoric in recent months, (six Park Lands attacks in a year) that pivot would appear unlikely.
Nevertheless, the Liberal Member for Bragg, Jack Batty formally moved the Heritage Places (Adelaide Park Lands) Amendment Bill 2022 on Wednesday 17 May and spoke in support:
“We have already had the South Australian Heritage Council consider this proposal and we know that they strongly support it and we know the reasons why. So this parliament should act today to give effect to that recommendation from the state Heritage Council. We already have 17 State Heritage Areas in South Australia and the Adelaide Parklands and the CBD would make a very worthy addition to that list.”
Read the rest of his speech here.
In response, Labor MPs just moved to adjourn debate on the Bill, to an unspecified future date.
Parliament can move with lightning speed when the Premier wants something urgently. However State Heritage listing of your Park Lands is obviously NOT regarded by the State Government as any priority.
Over the past 14 years, since 2009 when we nominated your Adelaide Park Lands for State Heritage listing, this is the sort of responses we’ve been getting:
Read more here: www.adelaide-parklands.asn.au/heritage including two responses from Deputy Premier and Environment Minister, Susan Close neither of which address the questions that we had asked. (PDF, 7 pages, 1.5 Mb)
