Self-interest the riverbank’s greatest threat
The competing self-interests of the Adelaide City Council and Festival Centre, among others, are the biggest risk to the riverbank’s potential.
That’s why an independent authority that cares only about the good of the precinct is necessary, says the man behind Brisbane’s riverbank development.
Earlier this month leaders from the council and Festival Centre used a public address to criticise the State Government’s plan for an independent statutory Riverbank Authority, with Festival Centre CEO Douglas Gautier warning it represented “the dead hand of bureaucracy”.
Existing stakeholders were always going to be worried about losing control over the precinct but had to accept it was for the greater good of the city, former South Bank Corporation CEO Malcolm Snow told InDaily.
“While I can understand that there might be some concerns on the part of city government as to perhaps a perception of a loss of influence or control, I think it’s important that both spheres of government approach the opportunity as being an opportunity in fact for a very strong partnership,” Snow said.
“That I think is the greatest risk – that you have entities and bodies who are only interested in their particular asset or their particular component of the larger precinct who choose not to buy into the idea of the sum of the parts being critical to the success of the whole.”
The South Bank Corporation was established by the Queensland Government to develop Brisbane’s riverfront in 1989, in a model very similar to the one put up by the State Government.
The Riverbank Authority, announced by the State Government in September, will manage the entire precinct and have responsibility for implementing the Riverbank masterplan. The authority will also make recommendations to the Government on retail mix and infrastructure spending.
In an interview with InDaily last week, town hall CEO Smith said there were already a range of boards and management groups active on the Riverbank – including the Botanic Gardens Board, the Zoo, two universities, Adelaide Oval, the AFC and the new hospital – and it didn’t make sense to add another.
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“What have we already got? And what’s already working well?
“Can we strengthen that? Or do you want to go through the 20-per-cent-of-pain route and take the power off all those boards and say we’re now going to give it to this new authority?”
Snow’s argument was the Riverbank needed a single vision, rather than a compromise.
“It can’t be the outcome of collaboration by a committee. It really does need to have a governance arrangement in place that ensures that both city and state government interests are respected but at the same time the opportunities for further development … is given the kind of attention that is needed to drive that vision forward.”
This story originally misattributed a quote about the “dead hand of bureaucracy” to Adelaide City Council chief executive Peter Smith. The quote was from AFC CEO Douglas Gautier. InDaily apologises for this error.
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