by Shane Sody

More than 120 prominent South Australians, including a former Premier, have signed an Open Letter demanding an immediate halt to the proposed 38-storey Walker Corporation tower on your Festival Plaza, behind South Australia’s Parliament House.

The Open Letter warns that the skyscraper would cast both a literal and symbolic shadow over the very site where South Australia became the first jurisdiction in the world to legislate universal suffrage, regardless of property, gender or race, including full political rights for women. These global achievements are recognized by the Australian Heritage Council.

160 metres tall. How big is that? An artist’s impression of how a 38-storey tower such as the one proposed for Festival Plaza would dominate even Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament at Westminster in London.

“This is a triumph of private profit over public purpose,” the letter states. “Festival Plaza should be protected as open public land and transformed into a low-rise Democracy Hub celebrating South Australia’s globally significant democratic legacy.”

The Open Letter also asserts that the proposed 38-storey tower would erode the value of the Adelaide Park Lands, “already under constant threat from commercial overreach.”

Signatories include:

Hon. Lynn Arnold AO, Former SA Premier
Archdeacon Peter Sandeman AM, fmr CEO Anglicare SA
Alan Rumsby FPIA former Commissioner ERD Court
Elizabeth Vines OAM, Heritage Architect
Samuel Doering, President, Professional Historians’ Association (SA)
Leonie Ebert, Chair, Graham Smith Peace Trust
Jane Abbey KC
Emeritus Professor Nicholas Jose
Marilyn Rolls, Convener, Women’s Electoral Lobby SA
Dr Susan Marsden AM, Historian
Hugo Hopton, Director, Conservation Council SA
Simon Ambrose, CEO, National Trust of SA
Dr Iris Iwanicki, Life Fellow, Planning Institute of Australia
Peter Duncan, Former SA Attorney General and Federal Minister
Samela Harris, Journalist Hall of Fame

and many more across law, media, planning, academia and the arts.

“The proposal to build a 160-metre high, speculative office tower just metres from our nationally heritage-listed Parliament House is not only out of scale—it’s out of step with Adelaide’s values,” said Alliance Convenor, Robert Farnan.

Norwood Councillor and Alliance member, Dr Christel Mex, added that the rezoning process failed the Government’s own Community Engagement Charter:

“It ignores alternative civic and sustainable visions for the site, with limited community awareness, and it ignores alternative civic and sustainable visions for the site.”

Formal objections have now been lodged by the Alliance, and other organizations and citizens, with the Australian Heritage Council, chaired by the Hon. Bob Carr, former Premier of NSW and Former Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The Open Letter closes with a challenge to Premier Peter Malinauskas and the South Australian Parliament:

“Let us turn North Terrace into a beacon of democracy, not a shadow of corporate power.”

With a meeting of the State Commission Assessment Panel (SCAP) scheduled for Wednesday 11 June, pressure is mounting on the Malinauskas Government to act.

*Much higher than any other Adelaide building, overshadowing Parliament House and dominating what was Open, Public space; the SA Government’s gift to Walker Corporation.*

Alliance Convener, Robert Farnan said:

“Walker Corporation is so confident of approval that they are already laying foundations and underground car parking. The Malinauskas Government must be asked how this has been allowed to happen when the proposed skyscraper has not yet been approved by SCAP?

“The Government is claiming to be “hands off” this decision, leaving it up to an independent arbiter while, at the same time, giving the proposal their full public support.

“The Government publicly cannot hide behind SCAP on a matter of this magnitude. The responsibility to protect this globally significant site rests with the Premier and the Parliament.”

Alliance member, Stewart Sweeney, said the group has prepared a cost-benefit comparison of the Walker Tower 2 with the proposed Democracy Hub initiative.

“This illustrates the economic, civic, sustainability and, above all, reputational and branding advantages of the Democracy Hub,” he said.

“The government has NOT undertaken such a cost-benefit analysis. It is time they did.”

Read the Open Letter here: (PDF, 4 pages, 946 Kb)

Background

Festival Plaza (YOUR land, part of your Adelaide Park Lands) was gifted to the Walker Corporation without any public tender, without any public consultation, nor any electoral mandate; a process roundly criticised by the State Auditor-General back in 2017.

The entire multi-year process has been marked by little to no transparency or accountability.

Over the past decade both Liberal and Labor State Governments have supported privatisation of your Festival Plaza by Walker Corporation.

The Marshall Liberal State Government (2018-2022) approved the now-constructed 29-Level Tower “Festival One”; along with a separate four-level retail building.

In April 2024, the Malinauskas Labor Government approved allowing Walker Corporation to scrap the proposed four-level building, and replace it instead with a 38-storey tower.

Although the State Commission Assessment Panel (SCAP) is being asked to consider a development application for a 38-storey tower, the Planning Minister, Nick Champion has effectively tied SCAP’s hands.

On 9 January 2025 the Minister changed the zoning for Festival Plaza, so that (guess what?) a new building of up to 40 storeys would be permissible there!

The author of this article, Shane Sody, is one of the signatories on the Open Letter.

He us the immediate Past President of the Adelaide Park Lands Association, and the editor of the semi-monthly newsletter, "Open Green Public".

Subscribe here.

https://adelaideparklands.m-pages.com/YWRrGW/adelaide-park-lands-assn-mailing