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LGA response to Independent Review of Landscape SA Act 2019

30 April 2024
A report of the Independent Review of the Landscape SA Act 2019, led by the Hon John Hill, has been tabled in Parliament. The LGA has actively contributed to this process, with many of our recommendations gaining support in the final report.

In November 2023, the LGA made a submission to the independent review, outlining eight key recommendations following consultation with member councils.

This followed a comprehensive submission the LGA made in April 2020 about the creation of the Landscape South Australia (General) Regulations 2020.

It is encouraging to see many of the LGA’s suggestions have been supported in the final report, which aim to improve transparency in several areas, including:

  • administration of the Landscape Administration Fund
  • provisions allowing the Minister to make discretionary payments from the Landscape Priorities Fund
  • how projects funded by the Landscape Priorities Fund are assessed, prioritised and reported
  • expenditure of levy funds by Landscape Boards, including introducing standardised reporting at the regional level.

The LGA also supports amending the title of the Landscape Act to ‘Natural Resources (Sustainable Management) Act’ to align more with the intent of the legislation.

The Review, however, does not address member council concerns around the roles and responsibilities of administering the Act – particularly the requirement that councils collect the Landscape Levy, which is essentially a State Government property tax.

The Review also leaves doubt about the future ability of the State Government to transfer responsibility for enforcement and compliance of the Landscape Act to councils.

The LGA will continue to oppose any cost shifting of responsibilities to local government. Imposing these additional responsibilities on councils would inevitably lead to increased financial burdens on South Australian ratepayers.

Putting mechanisms in place to address these discrepancies when amending the Act should form part of the government’s considerations.

The LGA is committed to ensuring these concerns are addressed in any amendments to the Act. We are proactively engaging with the Department for Environment and Water to better understand the State Government’s planned response to the review’s recommendations.

We will continue to work closely with the State Government to ensure local government perspectives are considered with any changes.

For further details and to read the full Report of the Independent Review of the Landscape SA Act 2019, visit the Department for Environment and Water’s website.

Members are invited to submit comments on the report recommendations to LGA’s Director, Advocacy via email.