Media Release

Dunstan By-Election Forum

The Dunstan By-Election has exposed a weakness in our political system whereby the major political parties Labor, Liberals, and Greens, take for granted that people are happy with the level of political discussion and the strategy adopted by the candidates in this electorate.

A quick perusal of social media in Dunstan sees lots of smiling on The Parade, token red dresses, or bopping with the former premier and gym workouts. Many of us despair at such orchestrated snapshots.

"The Development Assessment Panel of the Norwood Payneham and St. Peters Council gave approval to a developer to build three McMansions on the corner of 9th Avenue and Stephen Terrace St. Peters at its meeting on Monday night 17th of February. This approval will require the destruction of a lovely sandstone villa at 73 Stephen Terrace and will be a shocking waste of a character villa which has housed families for several generations", said Ms. Evonne Moore, spokeswoman for the St. Peters Residents Association.

"The local MP for Norwood and Leader of the Liberal Party Stephen Marshall will address local residents about housing development and quality of life issues at a general meeting of the St. Peters Residents Association," said Ms. Evonne Moore, spokeswoman for the Association.

"Our meeting will be held on Tuesday 8th of October next at 7.30 pm (guest speaker at 8.00 pm) at the St. Peters Youth Centre 2 Cornish Street Stepney. The public and press are invited to attend."

The Community Alliance SA is calling for an immediate halt to planning changes based on the 30 Year Plan because the community has lost all faith in the present process. The Alliance represents around 30 resident and community organisations disillusioned with the planning process and the State Government continuing to announce plans for growth and Development Plan Amendments (DPAs) without any meaningful community engagement.

“The community has lost all faith in decisions and directives made by the Minister based on the 30 Year Plan and we are calling for a immediate moratorium on all approvals for these DPAs, to allow a process to be put in place that will bring all the parties to the table and to find a better way to approach planning in this State” said Dr Wilmore.

"In view of the State Labor government forcing councils to allow controversial multi-storey flats to be built all over Adelaide, we are bringing Miles Lewis over from Melbourne to speak with Adelaide residents on this issue," said Stephen Fisher, President of Save Our Suburbs - Adelaide.

"Miles is the author of "Suburban Backlash: Battle for the World's Most Liveable City" and "Two Hundred Years of Concrete in Australia". He is a long-term critic of the sort of haphazard housing densification which Adelaide is suffering from.

"Save Our Suburbs invites residents, councillors, the press and everyone concerned about the future of residential development in Adelaide to come along at 8.00 pm on Wednesday 19th of June next to the Don Pyatt Hall in the Norwood Town Hall complex, 175 The Parade, Norwood (entrance off George Street) to hear Miles and to talk with him," he added.

"Over 200 residents packed into a Hoyts Cinema theatre in Norwood last night to tell the Norwood Payneham and St. Peters Council what they thought of Council plans to rezone residential land to allow more dense multi-storey flats to be built. There was a 99.9 per cent total rejection of these proposals," said Evonne Moore, spokeswoman for the St. Peters Residents Association.

"So great was the back-lash against the Council's proposals that it has been forced to hold two hearings to hear the public's views. The first hearing was last night and the next one will be on the 21st of March. Residents are being urged to attend both meetings to show Council their concerns.

On Wednesday 20th February Council held two briefings for residents in the Banquet Hall in the St. Peters Town Hall complex. Both sessions were well attended. Council's chief planner Carlos Buzzetti told residents that there were a range of constraints on properties being redeveloped. Development applications had to satisfy Council on a number of criteria before approval would be given to build any multi-storey apartments.

"The St. Peters Residents Association is proud to have letterboxed residents in areas affected by the proposed rezoning. We strongly reject any suggestion that we have been "scaremongering". Four-storey flats will take over some streets in the proposed rezoned areas. There is no doubt about that. We have done Council's work for it by informing residents", Evonne Moore stated.

More than 80 residents attended a street meeting in St Peters on Friday night to defend a small pocket of 68 homes on quiet backstreets earmarked for three to four storey unit blocks.

Local councillors John Frogley and Isaac Pasalidis attended the meeting along with Leader of the Opposition Steven Marshall, Opposition Shadow Minister for Planning Vickie Chapman, Federal Liberal candidate Carmen Garcia and a representative from Federal MP Kate Ellis’ office.

“The turnout is nothing short of amazing when you consider this is just one tiny pocket of the council area that is impacted and we only letterboxed just over 100 homes,” resident Mathew Pole says. “Multiply that by all the areas facing these drastic changes and you have literally thousands of people disgusted at the City of Norwood, Payneham and St Peters’ plans.”