Mayor joins Premier in $200m spending promise for Mount Barker
A delighted Mount Barker mayor and Labor candidate welcomed Premier Malinauskas’s commitment to a comprehensive infrastructure plan for the region if his party wins this year’s election.
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas stood alongside Labor’s candidate for Kavel, Mount Barker mayor David Leach, to announce a $200 million dollar plan to address infrastructure concerns for the rapidly growing region if his party wins the March State Election.
Announcing the plan, Malinauskas admitted that previous governments “didn’t get it right” but that “we’re seeking to right those wrongs”.
The extensive plan included promises to fix the Adelaide and Hawthorn Road intersection, create a new 24/7 pharmacy, $96 million to redevelop Mount Barker High School and to buy land for a second high school, $25.5 million for a new TAFE Trades workshop and a new Mount Barker police station.
“There was a lot of growth that occurred in Mount Barker without the appropriate investment from government, and we are committed to making that investment as best we can,” Malinauskas said.
Leach said that the state government had done “an excellent job” at keeping pace with population growth in the area.
“Mount Barker is the hub of the smoke of this district, and as the premier has said, there are things that have to be done – they need to be done now, and the Malinauskas Labor government, which I hope to be a part of, will be part of the secret to getting this work done,” he said.
“If you look at the new Summit Aquatic and Leisure Centre, that was partnered with the council and the government. The ambulance station, the hospital, Heysen Boulevard – there are many things that have been done in partnership with the state government, and I see this as a chance now with this plan to move ahead and really get things done.”
It comes after InDaily put a spotlight on development in Mount Barker in 2025, with a 2003 report obtained via a Freedom of Information request showing that Mount Barker’s population would double from 15,000 to 30,000 over the next 20 years if housing demand was met, despite that figure already being exceeded.
InDaily also revealed that only 25 per cent of the farming land that was rezoned for housing in 2010 has been developed as of 2025, according to the Mount Barker council.
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In addition, “sensitive” cabinet papers from 2013, obtained via FOI, recommended that the government build a “new R-12 facility in Mount Barker”, to be fully functional by 2018.
Mount Barker District Council’s manager of strategic planning Madeleine Walker said that the equivalent of a new classroom of children arrives in Mount Barker every two months.
Shadow Treasurer Ben Hood said that “this is Peter Malinauskas trying to pat himself on the back after a disastrous expansion and growth in Mount Barker”.
“Labor has been in power for the past 20 out of 24 years, and now Malinauskas wants to swing in, saying that he will fix it.
“Communities like Mount Barker deserve good government planning, not pork barrelling.”
