A GREENS-Labor clown troupe in the South Australian Upper House has passed legislation to basically allow the government to carry out defacto theft of private land.
Liberal Senator Alex Antic has raised the alarm over the shocking, unconstitutional powers that are contained in the recently passed the Planning, Development and Infrastructure (Use of Vacant Land) Amendment Bill 2022, passed by the SA Parliament’s Legislative Council.
The Urban Development Institute of Australia says the Use of Vacant Land Bill proposes that local or state governments could assume control of privately owned land without consent — and without compensation. “It is not only outrageous but dangerous,” says a UDIA media statement.
Introduced by the South Australian Greens and “not opposed” by the Labor government “in principle”, this Bill seeks to allow the government to take control of privately owned land it deems to be “primarily vacant” and “not being sufficiently used or developed” without paying compensation provided “reasonable steps” have been taken to negotiate with the owner, says Senator Antic.
“The Bill contains no guidance in relation to what constitutes underdeveloped land, nor does it specify how long a landowner has before the government may intervene, yet it provides sweeping powers to seize control of land for loosely defined “public purposes,” including temporary housing.
“Worse still, the Bill explicitly exempts the government from paying rent or compensation to landowners.
“This socialistic, big government approach is typical of Labor and the Greens, and South Australians who are concerned about the future of property rights in this state ought to keep a close eye on how this Bill’s debate in the House of Assembly plays out.
“Far from solving the housing crisis, the Bill would have a chilling effect on private investment and development. As the Urban Development Institute of Australia rightly put it, this is “an assault on South Australian property rights.”
“Meanwhile, Labor and the Greens continue to support record-high migration levels, which are placing unprecedented pressure on housing supply.
“Rather than address this imbalance with sensible reform, their answer is more government control. It’s strange how problems that the government creates need to be solved with more governmental power.
“I will continue to stand up for Australians who believe in the right to own and use their land free from state coercion.”
UDIA SA chief executive Liam Golding says the approach taken by the Bill distracts from the real and pressing issues driving housing undersupply. In many cases, it is government delays — not private owners — that are holding up development-ready land.
“The Bill is focused on the wrong problem. In many cases, if there is land that’s vacant that could have housing put on it, I’ve got heaps of members that want to build more houses,” he said.
“They want to get out there, they want to solve the housing crisis that we’re in. But the hold-up isn’t the fact that they don’t want to do it or can’t do it, it’s that they can’t get infrastructure, they can’t get the permissions, the planning consent to actually go on and build.”
“By creating a mechanism for the State to potentially delay or obstruct development, and then step in to repurpose the land, this Bill sets a deeply troubling precedent.
“It undermines the certainty that is essential for private investment in housing supply — particularly at a time when the sector is under immense pressure to deliver.”
