00:00:00
Speaker 1: And developments and the infrastructure that is planned or maybe not so planned, surrounding new housing developments. It is shaping up to be the key issue this election campaign, with both parties coming up with housing announcements on.
00:00:13
Speaker 2: Downsize of policies.
00:00:15
Speaker 1: And we saw the state government announced yesterday that it would set aside five hundred million dollars to buy off some former defense sites. We know that there's big developments happening in the northern.
00:00:25
Speaker 2: Suburbs out at Riverli.
00:00:28
Speaker 1: There has been land released in the southern suburbs at Old Dinga, and when these land releases are announced, the question always comes straight after, what about infrastructure? Have you thought of transport trains, buses? Are there enough schools? Are there enough office places for people to work near to their home so we don't have everyone traveling on the freeway or the.
00:00:51
Speaker 2: Expressway into the city.
00:00:54
Speaker 1: Are there enough hospital beds at the local hospital? And we always try and think of case studies and examples where in recent history would show us maybe planning has worked or maybe it hasn't.
00:01:07
Speaker 2: So let's check in with Mount Barker Council now.
00:01:09
Speaker 1: Andrew Stewart is the CEO and joins you this afternoon, Good afternoon, Andrew Stewart, thanks for your time.
00:01:16
Speaker 3: Oh hi, Spacey, thank you. So.
00:01:19
Speaker 1: Mount Barker obviously a recent development, recent you know, in quotation, marks one of the more recent developments in Adelaide, and it's grown. The population of Mount Barker has grown by a significant amount in the last decade or so, and it's expected to continue to grow.
00:01:37
Speaker 2: What figures are we talking here, Andrew.
00:01:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, we've doubled our population twenty odd years ago, it's twenty three thousand. We're forty eight thousand, So relatively speaking, that's significant for a little country town that's rapidly urbanizing. And we're thirty percent developed in terms of the land area, so we would think that it's about sixty five to seventy thousand within the next twenty years. As the population. That's huge in terms of a small country town. We had thirteen hundred hectares resioned by the Labor government twenty ten and thirty percent of it's developed. So, you know, these announcements, recent announcements being made. Just to put in context, Mount Barker is catering to fifteen thousand new homes fifteen thousand in that area, that's some perspective that's you know, a dimension that's a real challenge for our community, and you know it's growing at a rapid pace. So that's what we've been dealing with and we've got a way to go yet.
00:02:54
Speaker 1: And obviously the council approves different housing developments that are proposed for the area, but a lot of.
00:03:04
Speaker 2: The infrastructure, the other things that I was mentioning.
00:03:08
Speaker 1: Schools, roads, hospitals, that's out of.
00:03:13
Speaker 3: Your control, well, Stacey, The Labor government in twenty ten rezone thirteen hundred hectares. It did so after securing some basic agreements with some developers for roads and devised a scheme whereby developers contribute to a fund to provide certain interventions certain roundabout certain intersections. A lot of that infrastructure hasn't been delivered and it's subject to the fund and we've had escalations, so there's some challenges in terms of funding schools. We had a schools promised two years ago, but we don't know where they're going because the land hasn't been identified because when the area was rezoned, there was no land identified for reserves, for ovals, for schools, for ambulance stations and a lot of that land's been purchased by or most of it, all of it it's been developed purchased by developers for housing development. So then you've got to come in after the event and try and find areas for schools. So in terms of a plan, it wasn't a very good plan, and I think that's been well documented, and there is an acknowledgment that you know, it's going to be better going forward. But our argument is that, you know, we've got to fix some of this stuff up, and it takes a certain amount of will to do that. And we're asking the state come to sit down at the table with us and the development community and nut out some solutions to these legacy problems that won't go away, they'll only get worse. And the times now to fix such as the road to connect the road the heights and boulevard that doesn't connect. There's ten kilometers in round terms three hundred meters is problematic, it doesn't join, and fragments of community.
00:05:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is I was about to ask you, because I mean, it's become a bit of a folk law that it's the road to nowhere.
00:05:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's got a dead end. I suppose there's one way of putting it. It's meant to have. You know, it was designated by the government as a corridor to facilitate orderly circulation of Mount Barker, but it doesn't function as a connector road, and there's about three hundred meters. It's problematic. We're not looking for the government to fund it. We're saying, look, the developers have got to fund it, but we probably need to take a mature look at this and say let's step in and get it connected and then recover the money afterwards instead of because it won't happen so that our community has safe an orderly access throughout the Mount Barker district, which has rapidly expanded.
00:06:11
Speaker 1: So as well as that connector road, what else still needs to be done. You mentioned schools and that no land was purchased.
00:06:20
Speaker 2: I imagine the land.
00:06:21
Speaker 1: That is available at the moment is going to be expensive, and that'll be at the taxpayers cost, no doubt.
00:06:29
Speaker 3: No, you're imagining pretty well. It doesn't take much imagination to think that one through. And that's exactly right. We've had schools announced two years ago. Nothing's happened to give you an idea and your listener is an idea that sixty percent of our students in Mount Barker go to private schools, forty percent go to public education. And that's because there is no you know, that balance is the way it is because there isn't another school. We've had announcements for a new prime school. We haven't seen any progress on that. We've had a most recently announcement of a new high school, but it just simply says that they know that they're going to buy land for new high school, but nobody knows where. So, you know, for our community, it sort of sounds a little bit hollow that you know that these announcements are made and it's an election, but there's no there's no proof, there's no confidence of that happening anytime soon. And we our community is getting to a point where it's saying, look, Mount bark has got has reached a threshold point where it needs some direction from all parties, government included, to give a direction to providing meaning to these promises.
00:07:47
Speaker 2: So is anyone in the state government listening.
00:07:52
Speaker 3: Well, the state government have been historically caring, but you know, no more Barkers. We're sorry. However, we think that fall short of you know, and it's not about blame. It's really saying, look, there are problems, but we need to work with each other to find the solutions. And we have offered some solutions. The difficult with state government, and I think this is an area that you know, with all governments, you know, not just the labor state government, but all governments, is that departments. When it comes to urban development, there needs to be an integration of departments to ensure orderly development of these areas because it's not just about roads, it's about the integration of education, roads, healthcare and so on. So, you know, getting them to get out of a silent mentality for development is important, and I think there's been some acknowledgment recognition. In the case of Mount Barker. There are some problems that are legacy problems that have almost gone of the too hard basket. We're saying, look, that's not good enough. We've got to work through these and fix them, such as the connect the road, such as schools and so on. Was another example where the state coming to promise sewer infrastructure for Mount bark and it never never delivered and the councils had to pick up a major exercise in delivering appropriate sewing of the new development area.
00:09:33
Speaker 1: A right, and so what happens then, because you mentioned that, you know it's only thirty percent developed, I'm assuming the rest of this seventy percent will be coming on in the next decade or so.
00:09:50
Speaker 2: If we still don't have a school or a high.
00:09:52
Speaker 1: School or a primary school, and the roads still aren't connected, and the sewer isn't sewerage isn't thought about.
00:09:58
Speaker 3: What happens well, seerring's are taking place. The council's shown the leadership in the absence of anything else happening, so that had we've stepped up to the plate to deal with that issue. But you know, we've got a handsful and the road that really is a legacy issue from a state government decision. We're saying, look, we reckon. We've got a bit of an answer to this, that is that let's complete it. But we need you to acknowledge that there is a problem, participate in the solution, recover the investment from the developers. Subsequently, rather than waiting for it to happen, because it won't happen, let's get it finished and then we can tick off one of these problems that's now become symbolic and it's you know, it is demoralizing for a community to think that the smallss developed to happen, and yet we can't fix something that was meant to have been done fifteen years ago. So we've got an opportunity to get it done. And it's not a lot of money scheme of things. It just takes a bit of will. So we're saying we're ready, let's get the job done.
00:11:07
Speaker 1: At the start of this interview, you mentioned the fund that was announced when the development was announced.
00:11:13
Speaker 2: Is there do you have access to that?
00:11:14
Speaker 1: Can you just see money sitting in a bank account somewhere or do you know how much is available?
00:11:18
Speaker 2: Was any money put in?
00:11:20
Speaker 3: Okay? So that fund was really for transport interventions largely, and it's administered by a ministerial advisory committee. They oversite the fund and they make recommendations to help fund the necessary interventions, so they include things like roundabouts at certain strategic locations where the traffic loads have increased. However, the number of projects were identified and the amount of money available was a function of the development, so that when the development happened, the money would build up in the fund. Until you build up the fund, you can't put in the infrastructure, so the infrastructure is always going to lag. And of course we've had escalation, so that means that there is some concern now that there may not ever be enough money in the fund and it's a case of recognizing that's a problem. There's a problem there, so how might we deal with that? And that's something that the government, the state government set up and instead of pretending there's not a potential problem there, we need to now deal with it. And we're looking for an acknowledgment that we need to be able to recognize that there are some issues and if we deal with them now, it's going to be a lot better than trying to pretend that it's not a problem, because it's not going to go away.
00:12:48
Speaker 1: Well, hopefully the next time we speak Andrew, there might be an announcement made by one of the parties in the lead up to the election.
00:12:55
Speaker 2: I know this isn't for you to comment on.
00:12:57
Speaker 1: But the mayor of Mount Barker, David Leitch, is a candidate for the Labor Party, so you'd hope that he's in there is saying okay, we need this at Mount Barker.
00:13:05
Speaker 2: If you want to win this seat, we need to get this in this fixed.
00:13:09
Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, and you know, I'm sure he is. I has. However, it's you know, his one candidate. And it takes the Labor Party to understand that they have got a big responsibility with the state and making all these announcements to get it right, and that there is a growth agender. And I'm not here critiquing their growth agender. I think that the states, you know, the work that's being done is meritorious. But let's get it right, let's fix up Mount Barker and we can all move on. There are some key issues that hopefully nobody ever repeats. But equally, I think, you know, it's important for governments if they've made a mistake up and say look, we own the problem, let's fix it. Yeah. That's I think something that I'd like to see happen pretty soon to give people confidence about the custadianship about state going forward.
00:14:15
Speaker 1: Well, Andrew, it's been really interesting to chat this afternoon. Thanks so much for your time. And yeah, like I said, let's hope next time we chat that would have been announced, it would have been So that's the CEO of the Mount Bukett Council, Andrew Stewart,
Speaker 1: And developments and the infrastructure that is planned or maybe not so planned, surrounding new housing developments. It is shaping up to be the key issue this election campaign, with both parties coming up with housing announcements on.
00:00:13
Speaker 2: Downsize of policies.
00:00:15
Speaker 1: And we saw the state government announced yesterday that it would set aside five hundred million dollars to buy off some former defense sites. We know that there's big developments happening in the northern.
00:00:25
Speaker 2: Suburbs out at Riverli.
00:00:28
Speaker 1: There has been land released in the southern suburbs at Old Dinga, and when these land releases are announced, the question always comes straight after, what about infrastructure? Have you thought of transport trains, buses? Are there enough schools? Are there enough office places for people to work near to their home so we don't have everyone traveling on the freeway or the.
00:00:51
Speaker 2: Expressway into the city.
00:00:54
Speaker 1: Are there enough hospital beds at the local hospital? And we always try and think of case studies and examples where in recent history would show us maybe planning has worked or maybe it hasn't.
00:01:07
Speaker 2: So let's check in with Mount Barker Council now.
00:01:09
Speaker 1: Andrew Stewart is the CEO and joins you this afternoon, Good afternoon, Andrew Stewart, thanks for your time.
00:01:16
Speaker 3: Oh hi, Spacey, thank you. So.
00:01:19
Speaker 1: Mount Barker obviously a recent development, recent you know, in quotation, marks one of the more recent developments in Adelaide, and it's grown. The population of Mount Barker has grown by a significant amount in the last decade or so, and it's expected to continue to grow.
00:01:37
Speaker 2: What figures are we talking here, Andrew.
00:01:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, we've doubled our population twenty odd years ago, it's twenty three thousand. We're forty eight thousand, So relatively speaking, that's significant for a little country town that's rapidly urbanizing. And we're thirty percent developed in terms of the land area, so we would think that it's about sixty five to seventy thousand within the next twenty years. As the population. That's huge in terms of a small country town. We had thirteen hundred hectares resioned by the Labor government twenty ten and thirty percent of it's developed. So, you know, these announcements, recent announcements being made. Just to put in context, Mount Barker is catering to fifteen thousand new homes fifteen thousand in that area, that's some perspective that's you know, a dimension that's a real challenge for our community, and you know it's growing at a rapid pace. So that's what we've been dealing with and we've got a way to go yet.
00:02:54
Speaker 1: And obviously the council approves different housing developments that are proposed for the area, but a lot of.
00:03:04
Speaker 2: The infrastructure, the other things that I was mentioning.
00:03:08
Speaker 1: Schools, roads, hospitals, that's out of.
00:03:13
Speaker 3: Your control, well, Stacey, The Labor government in twenty ten rezone thirteen hundred hectares. It did so after securing some basic agreements with some developers for roads and devised a scheme whereby developers contribute to a fund to provide certain interventions certain roundabout certain intersections. A lot of that infrastructure hasn't been delivered and it's subject to the fund and we've had escalations, so there's some challenges in terms of funding schools. We had a schools promised two years ago, but we don't know where they're going because the land hasn't been identified because when the area was rezoned, there was no land identified for reserves, for ovals, for schools, for ambulance stations and a lot of that land's been purchased by or most of it, all of it it's been developed purchased by developers for housing development. So then you've got to come in after the event and try and find areas for schools. So in terms of a plan, it wasn't a very good plan, and I think that's been well documented, and there is an acknowledgment that you know, it's going to be better going forward. But our argument is that, you know, we've got to fix some of this stuff up, and it takes a certain amount of will to do that. And we're asking the state come to sit down at the table with us and the development community and nut out some solutions to these legacy problems that won't go away, they'll only get worse. And the times now to fix such as the road to connect the road the heights and boulevard that doesn't connect. There's ten kilometers in round terms three hundred meters is problematic, it doesn't join, and fragments of community.
00:05:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is I was about to ask you, because I mean, it's become a bit of a folk law that it's the road to nowhere.
00:05:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's got a dead end. I suppose there's one way of putting it. It's meant to have. You know, it was designated by the government as a corridor to facilitate orderly circulation of Mount Barker, but it doesn't function as a connector road, and there's about three hundred meters. It's problematic. We're not looking for the government to fund it. We're saying, look, the developers have got to fund it, but we probably need to take a mature look at this and say let's step in and get it connected and then recover the money afterwards instead of because it won't happen so that our community has safe an orderly access throughout the Mount Barker district, which has rapidly expanded.
00:06:11
Speaker 1: So as well as that connector road, what else still needs to be done. You mentioned schools and that no land was purchased.
00:06:20
Speaker 2: I imagine the land.
00:06:21
Speaker 1: That is available at the moment is going to be expensive, and that'll be at the taxpayers cost, no doubt.
00:06:29
Speaker 3: No, you're imagining pretty well. It doesn't take much imagination to think that one through. And that's exactly right. We've had schools announced two years ago. Nothing's happened to give you an idea and your listener is an idea that sixty percent of our students in Mount Barker go to private schools, forty percent go to public education. And that's because there is no you know, that balance is the way it is because there isn't another school. We've had announcements for a new prime school. We haven't seen any progress on that. We've had a most recently announcement of a new high school, but it just simply says that they know that they're going to buy land for new high school, but nobody knows where. So, you know, for our community, it sort of sounds a little bit hollow that you know that these announcements are made and it's an election, but there's no there's no proof, there's no confidence of that happening anytime soon. And we our community is getting to a point where it's saying, look, Mount bark has got has reached a threshold point where it needs some direction from all parties, government included, to give a direction to providing meaning to these promises.
00:07:47
Speaker 2: So is anyone in the state government listening.
00:07:52
Speaker 3: Well, the state government have been historically caring, but you know, no more Barkers. We're sorry. However, we think that fall short of you know, and it's not about blame. It's really saying, look, there are problems, but we need to work with each other to find the solutions. And we have offered some solutions. The difficult with state government, and I think this is an area that you know, with all governments, you know, not just the labor state government, but all governments, is that departments. When it comes to urban development, there needs to be an integration of departments to ensure orderly development of these areas because it's not just about roads, it's about the integration of education, roads, healthcare and so on. So, you know, getting them to get out of a silent mentality for development is important, and I think there's been some acknowledgment recognition. In the case of Mount Barker. There are some problems that are legacy problems that have almost gone of the too hard basket. We're saying, look, that's not good enough. We've got to work through these and fix them, such as the connect the road, such as schools and so on. Was another example where the state coming to promise sewer infrastructure for Mount bark and it never never delivered and the councils had to pick up a major exercise in delivering appropriate sewing of the new development area.
00:09:33
Speaker 1: A right, and so what happens then, because you mentioned that, you know it's only thirty percent developed, I'm assuming the rest of this seventy percent will be coming on in the next decade or so.
00:09:50
Speaker 2: If we still don't have a school or a high.
00:09:52
Speaker 1: School or a primary school, and the roads still aren't connected, and the sewer isn't sewerage isn't thought about.
00:09:58
Speaker 3: What happens well, seerring's are taking place. The council's shown the leadership in the absence of anything else happening, so that had we've stepped up to the plate to deal with that issue. But you know, we've got a handsful and the road that really is a legacy issue from a state government decision. We're saying, look, we reckon. We've got a bit of an answer to this, that is that let's complete it. But we need you to acknowledge that there is a problem, participate in the solution, recover the investment from the developers. Subsequently, rather than waiting for it to happen, because it won't happen, let's get it finished and then we can tick off one of these problems that's now become symbolic and it's you know, it is demoralizing for a community to think that the smallss developed to happen, and yet we can't fix something that was meant to have been done fifteen years ago. So we've got an opportunity to get it done. And it's not a lot of money scheme of things. It just takes a bit of will. So we're saying we're ready, let's get the job done.
00:11:07
Speaker 1: At the start of this interview, you mentioned the fund that was announced when the development was announced.
00:11:13
Speaker 2: Is there do you have access to that?
00:11:14
Speaker 1: Can you just see money sitting in a bank account somewhere or do you know how much is available?
00:11:18
Speaker 2: Was any money put in?
00:11:20
Speaker 3: Okay? So that fund was really for transport interventions largely, and it's administered by a ministerial advisory committee. They oversite the fund and they make recommendations to help fund the necessary interventions, so they include things like roundabouts at certain strategic locations where the traffic loads have increased. However, the number of projects were identified and the amount of money available was a function of the development, so that when the development happened, the money would build up in the fund. Until you build up the fund, you can't put in the infrastructure, so the infrastructure is always going to lag. And of course we've had escalation, so that means that there is some concern now that there may not ever be enough money in the fund and it's a case of recognizing that's a problem. There's a problem there, so how might we deal with that? And that's something that the government, the state government set up and instead of pretending there's not a potential problem there, we need to now deal with it. And we're looking for an acknowledgment that we need to be able to recognize that there are some issues and if we deal with them now, it's going to be a lot better than trying to pretend that it's not a problem, because it's not going to go away.
00:12:48
Speaker 1: Well, hopefully the next time we speak Andrew, there might be an announcement made by one of the parties in the lead up to the election.
00:12:55
Speaker 2: I know this isn't for you to comment on.
00:12:57
Speaker 1: But the mayor of Mount Barker, David Leitch, is a candidate for the Labor Party, so you'd hope that he's in there is saying okay, we need this at Mount Barker.
00:13:05
Speaker 2: If you want to win this seat, we need to get this in this fixed.
00:13:09
Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, and you know, I'm sure he is. I has. However, it's you know, his one candidate. And it takes the Labor Party to understand that they have got a big responsibility with the state and making all these announcements to get it right, and that there is a growth agender. And I'm not here critiquing their growth agender. I think that the states, you know, the work that's being done is meritorious. But let's get it right, let's fix up Mount Barker and we can all move on. There are some key issues that hopefully nobody ever repeats. But equally, I think, you know, it's important for governments if they've made a mistake up and say look, we own the problem, let's fix it. Yeah. That's I think something that I'd like to see happen pretty soon to give people confidence about the custadianship about state going forward.
00:14:15
Speaker 1: Well, Andrew, it's been really interesting to chat this afternoon. Thanks so much for your time. And yeah, like I said, let's hope next time we chat that would have been announced, it would have been So that's the CEO of the Mount Bukett Council, Andrew Stewart,
