Governance 06 Innovative Governance in a Metropolitan Context? The Case of the Office of the North, Adelaide Peter Trainor Flinders University Email:
[email protected] ABSTRACT In the lead-up to the 2002 South Australian election, the Labor Party announced its intention to implement a suite of policy initiatives for Adelaide’s northern region. At the time, “Labor’s Plan for the Northern Region” was framed to address key challenges (and opportunities) facing the North1, including the dual dynamic of: 1) the region’s real – and perceived – status as an area of concentrated disadvantage and dysfunction; and 2) the region’s identified role as a site for future urban growth and continuing industrial and economic development. Among Labor’s plans for the North were those for the establishment of a new “Northern Region Strategic Forum” which would “strengthen …relationships between State Government, its agencies and Northern Region Councils” and “promote and support regional initiatives and lead economic and social development through a more strategic approach by the State Government”. The work of the Forum was to be “oversee[n]” by four “Northern Ministers”2 (Australian Labor Party 2001). Although Labor did not secure an absolute parliamentary majority in the State election of February 2002, leader Mike Rann was able to form what became a surprisingly stable Government. Towards the end of 2002, the Government began to implement its plans for the Northern Region Strategic Forum. An Office of the North was approved by State Cabinet on 19 August, and the Office was opened, with little fanfare, on 4 November 2002.