In that agreement, he pledged “improving communication and collaboration” between the government and local councils, including the Adelaide City Council. ACC sources said that there had been absolutely no “communication and collaboration” between government and council before Monday’s announcement that the state would strip the city of planning approvals for buildings worth more than $10 million.

But while not telling council, Planning Minister Paul Holloway flagged the idea to developers who paid to attend an ALP fundraising lunch on Friday. At that fundraiser, he said he’d take a proposal to Cabinet on Monday. Another official forum at which government could have discussed its takeover is the Adelaide Capital City Committee. The Premier, Mr Holloway, Minister for Adelaide

Jane Lomax-Smith and Intergovernment Relations Minister Jennifer Rankine serve on the committee. Council representatives are Lord Mayor Michael Harbison, Ralph Clarke and Stephen Yarwood.

The committee’s role is to identify factors that will encourage future development within the City of

Adelaide. “Not once was the issue ever raised,” Mr Clarke replied when asked yesterday.

The government’s takeover follows council’s development assessment panel vote against a 30-storey proposal called Tower 8 in Flinders St near Victoria Square. It would have obscured and overshadowed the local area and did not comply with the local development plan. “That same development plan was approved by Paul Holloway himself just two years ago,” Mr Clarke said.

“Did he really want us to go against a plan he personally ticked off ?”

Mr Clarke said the change from local to state control could change Adelaide’s city face. “We now have a choice. We can keep what is unique about Adelaide, or go the way Perth and Brisbane did in the ’70s, when developers ruled and bulldozers knocked historic buildings over in the dead of night,” Mr Clarke said.

Infrastructure Minister Patrick Conlon said heritage was important. “But it shouldn’t be the only consideration,” he said. The ACC immediately “condemned the Rann Labor Government in removing the democratic right of residents and ratepayers” and called on all other SA councils to join it in opposing the change, which it said was made “behind closed doors and without consultation”.

Another councillor, David Plumridge, said it was a sad day for the people’s role in the planning processes. “It’s an even sadder day for those who supported Labour in the belief that it stood by the principles of good and orderly planning which had its genesis in the days of the late Don Dunstan,” Mr Plumridge said.

“That the application for Tower 8 did not comply with a significant number of the principles of development control applicable to its site is apparently of no concern to the minister. “But this was never about Tower 8. Rather it was about the grimy process of greed as practised by the more rampant sections of the development industry which over recent years has conducted a slow but carefully orchestrated campaign of unsubstantiated smear and innuendo against local government and its orderly planning processes.”

Infrastructure Minister Patrick Conlon claimed “local politics” had distorted the merit assessment process. He claimed some councillors had been elected by “in some cases, 480 or 500 people”.

But Mr Clarke said that at last year’s council election, 40 per cent of eligible voters in Jane Lomax-Smith’s state seat of Adelaide had voted for a council which would consider the city’s social fabric. “I am becoming alarmed that there is a stench in this state. This is not the Labor Party as I knew it,” the former ALP state president and Deputy Opposition Leader said.

While the takeover now applies only to projects worth more than $10 million, the minister threatened it could be extended at any time. “The performance of the (council’s development) panel will continue to be closely monitored to ensure that future assessment decisions are in keeping with the spirit of the State Government’s planning reforms,” Mr Conlon said.

Lord Mayor Michael Harbison, who took a pragmatic view of the takeover, admitted it diminished council’s status and prestige. “This is actually a return to the situation of 15 years ago, when (then

Liberal Premier) Dean Brown gave big planning decisions to council,” Mr Harbison said. The Liberal Party this week backed Labor, saying 6000 voters in Adelaide shouldn’t be able to dictate whether office towers were built or not.

“Council planning powers should be limited to determining residential developments,” said Shadow Urban Development Minister David Ridgway. The government will make the change through regulation, which means it won’t need to be passed by parliament. However with the

Liberal Party enthusiastically supporting Labor, only independents and minor parties have been denied a dissenting parliamentary forum.

“I have a major concern about the way this government is so closely linked to the development lobby,” Australian Democrat Sandra Kanck said. Under the new scheme, developments worth more than $10 million will be assessed by a government development assessment commission.

The commission’s seven members are appointed by the State Government. Many have links to developers. Chair Ted Byrt is a strategic advisor to major projects. Another committeeman, Geoff

Loveday, worked as chief of staff to the Minister for Planning. Damien Brown is the managing director of Dequetteville Pty Ltd, a development company.

The Property Council’s Nathan Payne welcomed the change and said he hoped “we’ll see more major projects approved for the city”. “It’s about providing certainty to developers and investors,” said Mr Payne, a former staffer to Mr Holloway.

Lord Mayor Harbison said the takeover could affect the search for a new council CEO. “It knocks some of the gloss off the position, although candidates with some knowledge of the role will take it in their stride,” he said. “They’ll understand the political environment which comes with the job.”

The incumbent CEO, Stuart Moseley, is about to join the firm of Connor Holmes, an Adelaide-based development adviser. The company claims to have been responsible for residential, retail, commercial and industrial developments. “Our knowledge of the development industry is exceptional,” Connor Holmes says.

Applications for the CEO position, which paid $350,000 p.a. when Mal Hemmerling held the job before he retired in November 2006, close next week. Mr Moseley is on leave until he starts the new job in September. “I’m sure he will be receiving financial reward for his experience,” the Lord Mayor said.