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ABC News
2 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Second Festival Plaza tower receives planning approval despite heritage concerns
A 38-storey office building with shops, restaurants and a public plaza is set to tower over South Australia's Parliament House, after the concept was granted planning approval despite a number of concerns raised by the government's heritage agency. The State Commission Assessment Panel (SCAP) granted planning consent to developers Walker Corporation on Wednesday to build a 160-metre-tall skyscraper in the Festival Plaza precinct, directly behind Parliament House. The tower, scheduled for completion in 2027-28, is expected to accommodate up to 5,000 office workers and will stand alongside Walker Corporation's 29-storey "Festival One" office tower which opened in 2024. The new 38-storey building will feature outdoor dining areas and retail tenancies on the ground-floor, an elevated plaza space on level one, commercial office space from levels six to 16 and 19 to 35, and a restaurant on level 36. The SCAP — a panel of planning experts appointed by the State Planning Commission to assess major CBD development applications — determined the Festival Tower plan was not "seriously at variance" with the planning code, according to minutes of its meeting published on Thursday. The panel granted the project planning consent subject to nine conditions, five of which were heritage matters concerning the relationship between the tower and Parliament House. The Malinauskas government strongly backed Walker Corporation's proposal after asking the company to revise its earlier plan for a three-storey retail hub that would have stretched across the northern facade of Parliament House. Planning Minister Nick Champion said the SCAP approval was "unambiguously good news for the state", adding that the Festival Plaza will be "vibrant and teeming with people" once the tower is finished. "We want to activate this plaza and office workers will do that," Mr Champion said. "They will provide the customers for food and beverage, they'll wander down to the theatre after work, they'll have drinks in bars in the train station and in town. "This will bring vibrancy to the square and activity to the square, it will make this beautiful place even more vibrant and welcoming." The second Festival Tower has not been without controversy, particularly due to its size and location on public land between the Adelaide Festival Centre and Parliament House. A self-described coalition of 125 eminent South Australians, headlined by former Labor premier Lynn Arnold, campaigned against the tower and argued the Festival Plaza should be "open and civic in character". The SCAP's approval also comes despite a number of concerns raised by the government's heritage agency, Heritage SA, about the impact the tower would have on Parliament House, a national heritage place. In a submission to the SCAP, Heritage SA raised concerns that the "visual dominance" of the proposed tower would leave views of Parliament House's northern facade "compromised". "The currently open setting to the north of Parliament House will be enclosed by the tower, compromising the historic landmark scale of Parliament House along the North Terrace boulevard," Heritage SA's principal heritage architect Michael Queale wrote. Government planning officer Ben Scholes, who prepared a summary report for the SCAP on the development, noted Heritage SA's concerns but said the agency had "not directed refusal of the application". "Instead, through detailed conditions to be assigned to any Planning Consent granted, Heritage SA has recommended design amendments to mitigate the concerns raised," Mr Scholes wrote. "This position from Heritage SA, while highlighting significant impacts, indicates that these impacts may be considered manageable and would be capable of resolution through design adjustments, rather than representing a fundamental incompatibility with policy expectations." Mr Scholes said the Walker Corporation proposal represented a "delicate balance" between the strategic vision for the precinct and heritage impacts. He added that the proposal was "not considered to be so fundamentally inconsistent or materially detrimental to the heritage and cultural values of Parliament House" to be "seriously at variance" with the planning code's heritage policies. "The circumstances of this application are consistent with this precedent, where a balance between strategic aspirations and heritage values was implicitly accepted." Mr Champion said the heritage conditions imposed on the planning consent primarily relate to the building materials that "will be used to match the features of Parliament House". "Every indication that we've had from Walker [Corporation] is that they care about complimenting the … heritage features of Parliament House," he said. "That was one of the things that was worked on a lot by the Government Architect and the Design Review Team … a lot of thought going into that as we blend the old and the new." The ABC has contacted Walker Corporation for comment. The SCAP's approval marks one of the final stages of the redevelopment of the Festival Plaza precinct — a process that began in 2014 when Walker Corporation entered a partnership with the state government to redevelop the Festival Plaza car park. That preceded a public-private partnership to upgrade the Festival Plaza's public realm, followed by construction on the 29-storey Festival One tower, which is now home to Flinders University and Deloitte. Early works behind Parliament House are already underway to prepare for the construction of the second tower, which is planned to hold 1,354 car parking spaces and around 47,000 square metres of office space. The second Festival Plaza building will rank among Adelaide's tallest buildings when completed. At 160-metres in height, the tower would eclipse the city's current tallest building, Frome Central Tower One, which stands at 138-metres-tall in the east end of the CBD. An even taller 180-metre, 37-storey hotel was given planning consent last year for construction behind the Freemasons Lodge at 254 North Terrace.
ABC News
25-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
No corflutes, no election? Some voters left in the dark by SA poster ban
South Australia's ban on political party corflutes "significantly impacted" some voters' awareness that a by-election was taking place last year, prompting the electoral commission to consider a rethink of its advertising strategy. The Malinauskas Government banned the display of election posters on public roads, trees, and Stobie poles in February 2024, saying it would improve the amenity of suburbs during elections and lead to better environmental outcomes. The corflute ban, which does not apply to posters on private property, had bi-partisan support and was legislated weeks before the March 2024 Dunstan by-election. It remained in place for this month's federal election. But the Electoral Commission of South Australia (ECSA) is now concerned that the absence of corflutes has left some voters unaware that an election was taking place. In an advertising tender released this week for the 2026 state election, ECSA listed the corflute ban as one of seven "challenges" it faced at the next state poll — alongside problems like "fake news" and a "decline in trust in democratic institutions". "[The ban] does pose some challenges for ECSA, as the corflutes had previously helped raise awareness of the elections and their candidates," the documents state. ECSA cited a survey conducted after the Dunstan by-election which "revealed that the recent ban on corflutes significantly impacted electors' awareness". "This effect was even more pronounced among non-voters, with 37 per cent stating that the lack of corflutes reduced their awareness of the event." Of those who did not vote, 30 per cent claimed "unawareness or forgetfulness" as their reason. "It's clear that ECSA may need to explore new strategies to enhance awareness for future elections," the documents state. The survey had a sample size of 250 voters and 30 non-voters enrolled in Dunstan, with a margin of error of 5.84 per cent. It was conducted by research firm Verian four weeks after the March 2024 by-election. Turnout for the Dunstan by-election — triggered by the resignation of former premier Steven Marshall — was 80.8 per cent, with 21,893 ballots cast from 27,108 enrolled voters. Labor's Cressida O'Hanlon narrowly defeated Liberal Party candidate Anna Finizio, with 360 votes separating the two candidates. The absence of corflutes appears not to have affected awareness of the federal election in SA, where turnout increased from 91.07 per cent in 2022 to 91.45 per cent in 2025. Australian Electoral Commission spokesperson Alex Morris said the change "has not been a concern" for the agency and corflutes are "a matter for state governments and local councils to regulate". Andrew Hughes, a lecturer in marketing at Australian National University, said the results of SA's corflute ban would be watched by other states, where local councils are allowed to implement varying regulations on election posters. He said the Dunstan by-election study showed how corflutes raised awareness of elections. "It's a common finding I have here in Canberra as well and people I've spoken to across the nation … that people aren't aware of elections being on sometimes unless they see corflutes up," Dr Hughes said. He added that posters still have an "important role" to play, particularly in by-elections which typically have lower turnout than state and federal elections. "But in a smaller by-election, the fact that so many aren't engaged to the point that they need to have a corflute remind them is troubling. "And I think maybe there needs to be more awareness raising of the by-election itself, maybe through mainstream advertising or social media or a combination of methods." The corflute ban comes as ECSA grapples with a broader decline in turnout for state elections. Turnout for the 2022 state election in the upper house was 89.2 per cent, down from 91.1 per cent in 2018 and more than 94 per cent in 2002. ECSA said participation rates had dropped to their lowest for a state election since World War II, reflecting "a slow but steady decline in electoral turnout across recent elections". "ECSA typically sees turnout levels below 80 per cent among 18 to 24-year-olds (the last data available shows a 76.2 per cent turnout in this age category at the 2018 State Election)," the tender documents state. In a statement provided to the ABC, ECSA said it was currently planning engagement and communication strategies for the upcoming 2026 state election. "The planning will take into consideration the legislative change to prohibit corflutes on public roads," the statement said. ECSA said the strategy would be finalised by September 2025. Special Minister of State, Kyam Maher, said the state government had received "overwhelmingly positive feedback" about the corflute ban. Mr Maher said elections looked different today compared to the past and that was "especially true in the way people get their news about elections". "We're in discussions with ECSA about how to ensure their communications activities are as effective as possible, to help South Australians exercise their democratic rights at the 2026 state election," he said. The 2026 state election will be held on March 21.
