Renewal SA board nearly renewed
Renewal SA nearly has a full board again after suffering four resignations in the wake of its vote on the State Government’s controversial $100 million Gillman land deal.
New Renewal SA CEO John Hanlon, who was appointed last month, told InDaily he was pleased with the new-look board, which includes Adelaide Convention Bureau chairman Phil Baker, SA Housing Trust board member Bob Boorman, and Department of Manufacturing, Innovation, Trade, Resources and Energy (DMITRE) former chief executive Geoff Knight.
After initially expressing concerns over the State Government’s plan to sell 400ha at Gillman to developer ACP without going to open tender, the former Renewal SA board voted late last year to approve the sale. More than half the members later resigned.
Hanlon said the resignations and the ongoing Gillman saga, which has since become the subject of a parliamentary inquiry, had not necessarily damaged Renewal SA’s reputation.
“This agency, by its nature, will always have sites that in some way may be controversial,” he said.
“I don’t think I’m in a position or anyone is in a position to judge the damage at this point in time; the matters are not all out there …
“I don’t look at it as damage; I look at it as the very nature of the work that we have to do.”
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Hanlon said his approach to advising the government on the tender process, a key element of controversy surrounding the Gillman deal, was that it would not always deliver the best outcomes for every site, and that all models of sale should be considered.
“There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with unsolicited approaches on sites,” he said.
“And there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with expressions of interest or tenders.”
“It will vary from site to site about how we go about the model we use for developing sites.
“Some of those models are matters where you have the opportunity to go out for expressions of interest about sites and some of those will be about tenders and some of those will be unsolicited bids.”
Hanlon said fulfilling Renewal SA’s remit to encourage vibrancy would be a central focus of his new role as CEO.
“I’m not going to change the direction of Renewal SA as such.
“What I’ve got to do for Renewal SA is [that] I’ve got to find us our next Bowden; our next Lightsview; our next Playford; our next Tonsley.”
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Hanlon was formerly the deputy chief executive of the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (DPTI). He had a large hand in changes to small-bar licensing regulations and the rezoning of the city, and chaired the Vibrant City Program.
He said the future of Adelaide would be characterised by higher-density living and infill.
“SA is built on the car industries of the ’50s and ’60s, where we put the big freeways in and we rolled out suburb, after suburb, after suburb,” he said.
“That’s a legacy that at the time served us very well but, in reality now, we can’t allow that to go any further.
“The beauty of Adelaide [is] that density doesn’t mean you have to go high-rise development.
“We can go smaller lots … We can build Adelaide on 4-, 5-, 6-storey developments which we would call dense, but other cities would call not even close to dense.”
He flagged the Glenside Hospital site, the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site and the riverbank precinct as ideal candidates for redevelopment.
“We’ve got to look at some of the blighted sites around inner metro Adelaide and see if we can turn them into new, exciting places for people to live and to visit. … That’s what we were set up to do.”
Last week, former DMITRE chief executive Geoff Knight became the newest member of the Renewal SA board.
Former managing director of Adelaide Airport Phil Baker and SA Housing Trust board member Bob Boorman have also been appointed. Baker is currently chairman of the Adelaide Convention Bureau and director of aviation consultancy company Philbak. Boorman is a consultant on the Nation Building Programme and a member of the Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology (DFEEST) Project Board.
Former Environmental Protection Authority chief executive Helen Fulcher remains on the Renewal board, as does former Victorian Labor Government Minister and board chair Bronwyn Pike.
“That group is well-known in Adelaide and certainly well-placed to support the executive of Renewal to achieve its objectives,” Hanlon said.
“I think I only have now one vacancy on the board.”
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