Mario Dreosti
SA Chapter President
Managing Director Brown Falconer

We’ve had a recent change of government and have seen at least the first round of changes within departmental leaderships. With change comes opportunity and the Institute has a number of key areas were we are seeking to engage with the new Liberal Government.

We had previously met with David Pisoni in his role as Shadow Planning Minister and now seek engagement with the new Minister for Planning, amongst many other portfolios, Stephan Knoll. We have met informally with the Premier and were heartened to hear the internal focus of the new government on three pillars of humility, accountability and delivery. 

These values align with core values of the Institute though we would also include education, innovation and public benefit within the pillars of humility and accountability.

Minister Knoll has stated that the Planning Reform will continue under the new Liberal Government and the Institute welcomes this news for the many positive opportunities this reform presents. We have recently hosted a round table with DPTI on the topic of ‘accredited professionals’ within the system and prepared our submission back on the draft paper.

We continue to advocate for the fact that bringing ‘design’ into the planning system will also mean bringing in expertise in the drafting of design related policy and in the ability to assess design which currently does not reside in the planning system – except for those larger projects which engage with Design Review processes. We are working well with DPTI to develop a framework for the referral, assessment and in some basic instances, potential to codify good design outcomes. We see roles for architects within the system in specialist review of architectural design as a paramount.

The new liberal government will focus on partnering with private investment to deliver in our state and our industry will welcome this focus on growth. The Institute will be engaged to see that the delivery focus is also layered with local industry participation, and capacity building, not simply jobs creation and expedient engagements of out of state expertise.

The new Liberal government have already expressed alternate visions for key sites around the city but also have noted a desire that spot rezoning becomes a rarely used tool and that the planning system itself provides strong certainty after up front engagement and consultation around development outcomes throughout the state. We welcome and have advocated for a planning system which engages, consults and resolves political agendas in the policy stage and then moves to professional assessment for individual applications. We look forward to the opportunity to contribute to discussions regarding a change in direction for the Adelaide Contemporary towards an indigenous focus as well as a other key sites.

Finally we will continue to support our board in their pursuit of mandatory CPD under  our act which was commenced under the previous government. A Liberal government will tend towards limited regulation and opening to the free market except on matters of life safety. We will advocate strongly that while the design of the built environment may not be a flesh and blood matter of life safety, it’s impact on human experience, facilitation of opportunity and betterment of spirit is so profound that those engaged with the design of our architecture must be registered and continually learning.