Landscape board elections cancelled, government will appoint new members
Locals can still nominate to become board members, but the Department for Environment and Water will make the final selection.
The state government has cancelled elections for local Landscape Boards, instead saying the Department for Environment and Water will appoint members.
Environment Minster Susan Close said the main reason the November elections were cancelled was due to a clash with local government elections.
“The landscape boards, electoral authorities and the community raised serious concerns about holding board elections at the same time as local council elections,” Ms Close said.
“We are providing an open and wide ranging opportunity for people to get involved, and doing our due diligence to ensure each board has the right balance of skills, experience and knowledge of landscape management.”
Opposition Leader David Speirs said the decision would do more harm than good.
“We established landscape boards in 2019 to put decision-making back in the hands of community members, placing boards at arms-length from government and giving them the power to take environmental management decisions at a local level,” Mr Speirs said.
“The real risk is that board decisions will handed down from the centralised Adelaide public service, rather than decided at community level.”
Nominations will close on September 30, 2022.
New board members will be appointed from February 2023.
- Apply to join the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board: landscape.sa.gov.au/board-nominations.
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