Strategic land use planning: Experiments in legislation and governance

A strategic viewpoint lies at the heart of land use planning. Over the past half-century, legislation has been promulgated for strategic land use planning in the states and territories of Australia. Using South Australia as a case study, this article considers the series of planning statutes from the 1967 Planning and Development Act to the Development (Sustainable Development) Bill first introduced in 2004. It discusses the administrative arrangements and policy instruments each statute put in place and the changing climate of governance over the decades. It also discusses the tensions inherent in the Westminster form of cabinet government (a federation of ministries and departments) when it comes to co-ordinating policies and programs and how it differs from the corporate approaches of local government and private enterprise. It concludes that while strategic land use planning has often been successful at city or regional level, difficulties remain at state level. Challenges in drafting appropriate and effective statutes are still to be addressed.