Parliamentary Inquiry foiled. Or was it?
by Shane Sody
In the Legislative Council this week, SA Labor, and the two SA Best members combined to kill off a proposed Select Committee of inquiry into mis-management of your Park Lands.
Liberal and Greens Members were together trying to establish an inquiry, looking at how your Park Lands are managed; and what changes might be made to improve the broken Adelaide Park Lands Act 2005.
This Act is totally ineffective in protecting your Park Lands.
After speeches from the Liberal Party’s Nicola Centofanti on 17 May and the Greens’ Robert Simms on 31 May the proposed inquiry was killed off by the narrowest of margins: 10 votes to 9.
The Liberals’ Nicola Centofanti (left) and the Greens’ Robert Simms (right) who spoke in favour of establishing a Select Committee of Inquiry into the (mis)management of your Park Lands.
Labor had the numbers to defeat the proposed inquiry when SA Best’s Connie Bonaros and Frank Pangallo voted no, without giving any reasons for their vote. https://hansardsearch.parliament.sa.gov.au/daily/uh/2023-05-31/37
SA Best’s Connie Bonaros (left) and Frank Pangallo (right) neither of whom gave any reason for rejecting the proposed inquiry.
But that does not appear to be the end of the matter. Parliament’s “Economic and Finance Committee” now looks set to take up the issue.
According to InDaily’s “Insider” column on Friday 2 June:
Own goal? Govt to face unlikely park lands probe
The Malinauskas Government will now be probed about its management of Adelaide park lands – despite having the numbers to quash the inquiry – in a twist that raised eyebrows in parliament this week.
On Wednesday afternoon, Upper House Labor MPs rejected an Opposition push to create a Select Committee inquiry into the “management and preservation” of the Adelaide park lands.
The committee – which shapes as a very loud sounding board for park lands supporters to throw stones at the government over heritage and development – was voted down on a razor thin 10 to 9 margin, Labor just getting over the line with the support of SA-Best.
But The InSider has been told the inquiry will go ahead anyway because the Opposition was able to establish the probe through the already existing Economic and Finance Committee.
The committee – which has a majority of Labor MPs – sat on Thursday morning. Committee chair Eddie Hughes did not return calls, but The InSider understands the absence of two Labor MPs – Adelaide’s Lucy Hood and Light’s Tony Piccolo – gave the Liberals the numbers to vote through the inquiry.
If you’d like to be a Park Lands protector, here’s our recommendations to: