A battle of jurisdictions is unfolding in South Australia, with the state’s Planning Minister looking to prevent local councillors from taking part in planning assessment bodies.

The stand-off has unfolded after an escalating verbal battle between City councillors and SA Planning Minister John Rau over a hospital development. There have been allegations that councillors Anne Moran and Michael Henningsen should have excused themselves from planning because Cr Henningsen is a surgeon working at the hospital in question, as does Cr Moran's anaesthetist husband.

Mr Rau says: “It is difficult for elected members to remove their local political sensitivities when assessing any project against their council's Development Plan... that is a difficult ask and that leads to decisions that can be seen as strange.”

Cr Henningsen said: “His mindless push conveniently neglects to mention the fact that more independent members of the DAP voted against the proposal than did councillors... [Mr Rau's] push to have development at any cost has inadvertently paralysed development in the city because he has destroyed the land economy and in Adelaide now there are no developers, just speculators.”

Mr Rau said in hindsight he should have taken control of the whole city when he introduced sweeping changes to planning rules last year, changes which lifted height restrictions for most of the CBD but has left the government and council wrangling over areas such as the South Terrace hospital site.