State Development Coordination and Facilitation Bill 2025

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:50): 

I rise today to speak in support of the State Development Coordination and Facilitation Bill 2025. I believe that, in order for South Australia to be competitive and to have the ability to attract investment for key developments, this bill intends to improve efficacy and efficiency, provide certainty and reduce risk for development by creating a centralised Coordinator-General's Office and improved system-wide coordination of key developments in South Australia for social, economic and environmental purposes.

The bill aims to improve coordination across South Australia's planning and regulatory system and will provide for:

• the ability to proactively apply existing planning and regulatory processes;
• pathways to take a place-based approach where development can be facilitated in a timely manner in areas which have been proactively identified as environmentally and economically suitable;
• streamlined provision of enabling infrastructure to get more large housing developments built more quickly (I think that is welcome);
• increased capacity and efficiency; and
• greater influence over development and environmental outcomes through conditions and other mechanisms.

The key new measures introduced in this bill are the establishment of a Coordinator-General's Office (CGO) and its ability to create state development areas. State development areas, called SDAs, have been described as pre-assessed go zones. In other countries, I have observed that many of those zones are called special economic zones (I believe that is very similar), which allow for regulatory assessment to be undertaken at an earlier stage of the planning and development process. This is intended to establish a proactive and place-based approach to identify suitable areas for development and provide clarity for community and for development proponents, and will allow for faster approvals once applications are made.

It is important to note that the government has stressed that there will be no reductions to existing regulatory requirements or standards that apply under existing legislation. The government argues that the CGO will instead help coordinate these existing processes and standardise and streamline timeframes for statutory processes where possible. There is no doubt that this coordinator approach is something that industries and developers have been crying out for, and we have seen the success of similar coordinator-general functions in other jurisdictions interstate and overseas.

For example, in June 2024, New South Wales established a coordinator-general function to coordinate the delivery of key priorities in renewables in housing and the Western Sydney growth area, and similarly Queensland continues to refine its longstanding coordinator-general model, achieving successes in critical minerals, green manufacturing and infrastructure corridors. Governments in both the Northern Territory and Western Australia are also, as I understand, planning very similar reforms.

I think these sort of reforms can unlock many economic corridors and developments in South Australia. I am supportive of what South Australia is doing, because we need to keep up with best practices so that South Australia does not fall behind or miss out on opportunities to grow our industries, build more houses, growing jobs and boosting our productivity and interest for our economic development. I sincerely hope that this new CGO will indeed improve efficiency, enabling some streamlined processes, and not have another additional layer of bureaucracy laid on top of it for private investors to navigate.

I am encouraged to see the state development areas introduced in this bill, and this will create the ability for the CGO to proactively access suitable areas for critical development and give proponents confidence that applications will be given timely and targeted consideration. Pre-assessment of SDAs will help to identify, avoid or manage barriers to a proposed development, and ensure that the sites are fit for purpose, can be zoned appropriately, and can accommodate key infrastructure and developments without undue local impacts. This ability to proactively pre-assess a range of statutory requirements will be a gamechanger for many developments, helping to de-risk projects of critical importance to our state.

I would also like to point out that the bill would allow for the minister to authorise the CGO to undertake essential infrastructure works for designated projects or projects in an SDA. I believe that will facilitate public and private enabling infrastructure to help bring large housing developments and new communities to life more quickly, which is really a legitimate partnership between public and private sectors.

I note that the Hon. Robert Simms will be moving amendments, and I will consider those amendments during the committee stage. I also understand that the Liberal opposition, the Hon. Michelle Lensink, also filed some late amendments. Some of them are quite sensible, so I will consider those amendments as well. Overall, I am encouraged to see progress towards a more streamlined, proactive and positive approach to development in South Australia. With those remarks, I commend the bill.