by Shane Sody

Voters in Adelaide’s inner eastern and inner north-eastern suburbs will be voting on Saturday 23 March, to elect a new MP to replace the retiring former Liberal Premier Steven Marshall.

The electorate of Dunstan borders your Adelaide Park Lands, so we have asked each of the main candidates about what commitments, if any, they are prepared to make in regard to your Open Green Public treasure.

We will publicise their answers at least a week before polling day - i.e. no later than Saturday 16 March.

Here are the questions we have put to each of the three main candidates.

Your Adelaide Park Lands are unique in the world and have National Heritage status, yet many people, even in Adelaide, seem unaware of their rarity.

If elected, what would you do to address this?

Your Adelaide Park Lands are being gradually eroded and there is no effective mechanism to halt or impose a limit on the extent of losses. The Adelaide Park Lands Act 2005 has been ineffective at preventing continual losses of Open Green Public Space to development.

If elected, what type of amendments to the Act would you initiate or support to provide real Park Lands protection?

The City Council and others are developing a bid for UNESCO World Heritage recognition of "Adelaide and its Rural Landscapes" (i.e. for the Adelaide Park Lands and the rural settlements of the Mt Lofty Ranges). The City Council has been advised that World Heritage Listing would result in a 20% to 30% increase in international tourism. The bid would require State Government support.

If elected, how would you assist in advancing this World Heritage bid?

There is a broad range of community, sporting and business groups supporting the concept of an unbroken walking/running/ cycling trail to unite all parts of your Park Lands garlanding Adelaide. https://www.adelaide-parklands.asn.au/blog/2022/2/27/hope-emerges-for-adelaide-recreation-circuit

If elected, how would you assist to bring the Adelaide Recreation Circuit to fruition?

Since March 2022, the Malinauskas State Labor Government has approved five Park Lands attacks (and threatened a sixth). https://www.adelaide-parklands.asn.au/six-attacks-in-a-year

If elected, what would you do to try to prevent similar Park Lands losses in future years?

There are more than 200 locations in your Park Lands that are no longer Open, Green, Public. www.adelaide-parklands.asn.au/open-green-public

Please nominate one of more of these sites that, if elected, you would assist in getting re-greened, rehabilitated, or restored to Open Green Public status.

For more info about voting in the by-election, see the Electoral Commission website: https://www.ecsa.sa.gov.au/elections/2024-dunstan-by-election