The South Australian Department for Planning, Transport, and Infrastructure (DPTI) has advised the staged introduction of new planning legislation is well underway, with some key parts of the Planning, Development, and Infrastructure Act 2016 now in operation. 

These relate to:

• Assessment Panels
• State Planning Policies
• State Planning Commission assumes new responsibilities

Two elements of the new scheme will be of particular interest to engineers. 

Firstly, a key element of the new system is a greater emphasis on design quality. In particular, there will be a greater opportunity for and focus on performance-based rather than compliance-based assessment criteria. Performance-based assessment has long been sought to facilitate innovative design rather than reliance on established prescriptive approaches.

Secondly, the new system provides for a tiered arrangement for assessments, one of which introduces a new category using ‘Accredited Professionals’. Whilst this appears to be a rebadging of the current Independent Certifier process, it appears to have a broader scope.

Council Assessment Panels are required to operate under the legislation from 1 October 2017. The new panels will have a maximum of five members, only one of which may be an elected member of council. Members do not need to be ‘Accredited Professionals’ at the present time, although they should have relevant expertise. The requirement for Accredited Professionals will be commenced at a future date following commencement of the inaugural “Accredited Professionals scheme” anticipated in 2018.  

Consultation is currently underway until Sep 2017 on the Accredited Professionals Scheme with the proposed establishment of the Scheme by late 2017 and accreditation in place by July 2018. In addition, the State Planning Commission will assume the functions of the Development Assessment Commission, Building Rules Assessment Commission, Building Advisory Committee, and the Development Policy Advisory Committee. Further information can be found on the SA Planning Portal.

The South Australian Division of Engineers Australia (EA) is currently reviewing the new scheme, with a particular focus on proposed changes to strengthen requirements for engineers who undertake third party checking and certification of structural designs and calculations through regulations under the new Planning legislation. These requirements, which will include some form of registration, will come to be part of the Accredited Professionals scheme. However, DPTI has advised that mandatory registration of all engineers is not supported.

Greg Parker, Division Manager for Engineers Australia (EA) in SA added that EA continues to support the registration of engineers to ensure a highly skilled engineering workforce providing a standard that the public and government can rely upon to provide confidence that an engineer has the qualifications and experience to practice, demonstrating that an engineer possesses the skills and standing to be competitive in the global market, and enabling accountability through ongoing validation of competency and standards.

This article was written by Richard Muncey Chair of South Australian Engineering Heritage Group