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Speaker 1: The Adelaide City Council, God bless them have been hard

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Speaker 1: at work doing their wonderful job of raising a lot

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Speaker 1: of interesting topics for us to discuss. And on the

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Speaker 1: line is Councilor Henry Davis and Henry good morning. I've

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Speaker 1: spoken with the Lord Mayor before about the need for

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Speaker 1: empty commercial buildings in the city to be converted into

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Speaker 1: housing moving forward. Now is there room for that in

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Speaker 1: the city?

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Speaker 2: Well, look there is, but the problem is the City

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Speaker 2: of Adelaide is going one step further. We actually made

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Speaker 2: a recommendation, not going through a council, that all new

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Speaker 2: buildings would need to now be able to be converted

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Speaker 2: into residential housing in the future. Now that is a

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Speaker 2: huge impost on developers. So what they're saying is that

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Speaker 2: we want as part of the policy that if you're

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Speaker 2: planning commercial building, that you now plan for the conversion

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Speaker 2: of it into residential apartments in the future. Now, if

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Speaker 2: I was an investor or accentially i am, that just

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Speaker 2: makes it much much harder to invest in the city.

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Speaker 2: And I think these types of policies have the exact

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Speaker 2: opposite of what we want to do, and it's going

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Speaker 2: to stop people from investing in the city.

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Speaker 1: So how does a multi story twenty story building, for instance,

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Speaker 1: which is an office block plan for conversion, how do

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Speaker 1: you put a toilet on every one hundred square metts

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Speaker 1: or whatever it might be.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's exactly right. So if you're going to have

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Speaker 2: you know, a thousand square meter full plate and you're

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Speaker 2: going to put you know, ten different apartments in there,

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Speaker 2: for example, and it's you know, you're going to build

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Speaker 2: a commercial property, and now you're going to have to

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Speaker 2: put in what's plumbing so that there's going to be

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Speaker 2: flushing toilets. You're going to have to put in different

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Speaker 2: mechanisms in place, like rubbishoots and all that kind of stuff.

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Speaker 2: It's a ludicrous and it's going to make it even

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Speaker 2: harder for people to kind of invest in the city

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Speaker 2: and have the exact opposite effect of growing our population

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Speaker 2: to fifty thousand people.

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Speaker 1: So developers will think long and hard about this. Is

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Speaker 1: this something that they'll have to abide by now? Is

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Speaker 1: it a requirement moving forward?

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Speaker 2: It's not. It's just been a recommendation that the City

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Speaker 2: of Adelaide is now advocating for. But my point of

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Speaker 2: the City of Adelaide is that these signals that we

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Speaker 2: send to the market. You know, for example, the Lord

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Speaker 2: May's saying, we want to convert commercial to residential now,

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Speaker 2: and we're going to incentivize that. These signals actually say

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Speaker 2: to investors that, for example, commercial is not viable in

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Speaker 2: the city because we have too much of it. But

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Speaker 2: also if you want to build residential, we don't build

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Speaker 2: residential because now you're going to compete with commercial buildings

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Speaker 2: as well. So these signals that we're putting into the market,

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Speaker 2: I think have the opposite effect. Now we're saying that

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Speaker 2: we want to grow our population of fifty thousand people,

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Speaker 2: and yet the council is trying everything to get rid

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Speaker 2: of catalyst sides, which are give the ability for larger

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Speaker 2: landplots to go up a bit higher. So we need

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Speaker 2: more density, but then we're going to get rid of

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Speaker 2: all the mechanisms that would allow that to happen. So

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Speaker 2: we're kind of telling the world that this is what

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Speaker 2: we want, grow the population of fifty thousand people, and

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Speaker 2: then do the exact opposite on the other side, and

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Speaker 2: then confuse the market and investors are going to take

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Speaker 2: their money elsewhere.

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Speaker 1: There's room for perhaps small a warehouse type one two

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Speaker 1: story buildings ending up this way, I suppose, but anything

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Speaker 1: bigger the cost and for a developer a plan that's

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Speaker 1: moving forward, and all buildings are bigger these days anyway,

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Speaker 1: it's just a huge cost. I imagine then to try

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Speaker 1: and convert and to plan that out in the beginning,

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Speaker 1: to start with the planning out of.

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Speaker 2: The beginning will add one or two percent of the cost,

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Speaker 2: and that's a huge impost that just makes some projects unviable.

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Speaker 2: Now I said this to the administration, is that the

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Speaker 2: problem with bureaucracy is that often people will get promoted

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Speaker 2: within a bureaucracy by coming out with some new rule.

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Speaker 2: I think people should get promoted in bureaucracies by removing

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Speaker 2: rules and the world not catching on fire. So I

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Speaker 2: would be saying that we need to make things easier

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Speaker 2: for people to do business, not incentivize more and more

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Speaker 2: and more rules and more obligations and make the thing

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Speaker 2: more complex. That's not going to drive investment. We should

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Speaker 2: be in the opposite and removing rules rather than putting

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Speaker 2: more in play.

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Speaker 1: Not to suggest a new rule, but should there be

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Speaker 1: a business section in the city, I mean it largely

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Speaker 1: is anyway, and a residential quarter if you like.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and maybe an adult entertainment corner as well. Yes,

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Speaker 2: I do think so. I think there's a really good

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Speaker 2: having that clear planning of where large office blocks are

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Speaker 2: going to be, where you know, we know where the

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Speaker 2: courts are. For example, courts are a good example, so

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Speaker 2: all the lawyers try and get around the court so

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Speaker 2: that they can walk there, so it's easier. So having

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Speaker 2: you know, a cultural area it's dedicated to that, where

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Speaker 2: we really invest in that and create that density. You know,

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Speaker 2: you have streets like Broadway or in England they have

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Speaker 2: their strips where it's all their culture and theaters have

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Speaker 2: all together, so you know where to go, and we

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Speaker 2: should think about that as our city planning is having

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Speaker 2: these different sections. We have a business community, have a

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Speaker 2: cultural section and you know, adult entertainment. Maybe that should

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Speaker 2: just be unfamily straight and not next to the schools

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Speaker 2: in church.

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Speaker 1: All right, Now, look, it is Christmas and the decorations

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Speaker 1: are out, including the Christmas Tree, which is ready and

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Speaker 1: I imagine it is going to be at some point

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Speaker 1: in the near future to celebrate the impending season. Council

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Speaker 1: had a look at Christmas last night, as well, didn't it.

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Speaker 2: Yes, they did, and there's been a real shift in

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Speaker 2: the community. And I think what there was this idea

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Speaker 2: that being inclusive meant that we needed to cancel Christmas,

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Speaker 2: not talk about Jesus, not talk about the religious access,

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Speaker 2: not talk about Santa, make it inclusive to everybody and

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Speaker 2: say happy holidays. Well, we received consultation backs last night

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Speaker 2: from the community saying, no, we want to preserve these

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Speaker 2: Christian elements to it. We want to preserve Christmas and

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Speaker 2: then include everybody in this holiday. Now, there's kind of

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Speaker 2: this perception that inclusivity means that you can't mention it.

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Speaker 2: But we don't do the same thing for Ramadan, or

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Speaker 2: for Dwali or for Chinese New Year. You know, we're

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Speaker 2: not going to be advocating that Chinese New Year become

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Speaker 2: more inclusive by putting up a giant Santa clause or

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Speaker 2: Ramadan by having you know, rangeers everywhere. Right, Multiculturalism means

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Speaker 2: that we have strong cultures throughout our sector, and they

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Speaker 2: emphasize the beliefs and the basis for those holidays. So

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Speaker 2: I want to encourage your listeners and everyone not to

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Speaker 2: feel ashamed about saying Merry Christmas, not to feel ashamed

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Speaker 2: about putting up things in your office and celebrating Christmas properly,

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Speaker 2: which is a Christian holiday. Because the people who are complaining,

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Speaker 2: they're not people from other cultures. You know, it's not

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Speaker 2: people the Muslim sector who's complaining about Christmas. It's not

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Speaker 2: the Indian community complaining about Christmas. It's generally some white

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Speaker 2: person who's saying, I'm worried about them. No, we need

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Speaker 2: to celebrate all our cultures, embrace the holiday, embrace Christmas

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Speaker 2: for what it is. And I think that that's the

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Speaker 2: strong message we got from our community last night. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, I saw a photo of the Lord Mayor welcoming

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Speaker 1: Santa from the National Pharmacies Christmas Pageant, which incidentally isn't

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Speaker 1: called the National Pharmacies Happy Holidays Pageant, is it?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, And let's keep a Christmas. I think there

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Speaker 2: is at the moment, everyone's sick of all this, you know,

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Speaker 2: identity wars and the political correctness. Let's just do what

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Speaker 2: we're supposed to do. Adelaie. It is a custodian of

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Speaker 2: this holiday. We want to make it bigger and better.

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Speaker 2: We want to celebrate the birth of Jesus. We want

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Speaker 2: to celebrate a big fat guy who gives you presents

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Speaker 2: every year, you know, commercialized by Coca Cola.

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Speaker 1: That commercialized that.

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Speaker 2: It's amazing.

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Speaker 1: I love it, So.

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Speaker 2: Why let's embrace it, get on board with it, and

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Speaker 2: don't be afraid to wish someone to Merry Christmas.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, well let me be. You can be the first

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Speaker 1: person I wished Merry Christmas to this year. Henry, All

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Speaker 1: the best to you. Thank you, Henry Davis councilor Adelaide

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Speaker 1: City Council,