STREAKY BAY DISTRICT COUNCIL

The Hon. G.M. GUNN (Stuart) (15:31): I wish to raise an issue in relation to the foolish report that the Environment, Resources and Development Committee tabled in this house some time ago and some of the comments it made in relation to the District Council of Streaky Bay. I sincerely hope that the member for Giles and the member for Schubert read what I have to say. I want to quote from a letter to the Editor of the West Coast Sentinel of 14 February 2008, entitled 'We're not that group'. The letter states:

I hope that this letter can help the public of Streaky Bay and surrounding district realise and understand that the FOSB (Friends of Sceale Bay) are not the residents of Sceale Bay, but are an environmentalist group completely on their own.

The latest article that was published in February 7 Sentinel regarding the shooting of a white-bellied sea eagle—which I do not condone—has started the tongues wagging, once again, about the FOSB group. Fingers are being pointed at the 99.95 per cent of residents that are not in the group. The majority of residents do not even know any of the members from the FOSB group. To my knowledge, there is only one active member in Sceale Bay, with the rest of them spread out around the state and interstate.

I have only resided in Sceale Bay for the past few years, and as a newcomer to the district I have heard more about the stranglehold they have on new development and not so much about the good work they have done in the area. More to the point, it is the FOSB group that try to stop any development from happening and not the residents of Sceale Bay.

The local council of Streaky Bay was recently notified by the newly elected local committee president that the Sceale Bay community wishes to work with the council to help improve the town's overall appearance and to update development. The committee also would like to make clear that any misrepresentation of Sceale Bay's history of being in the FOSB group was going to be rectified.

I do wish to make it clear, that some of the works the FOSB take on are of importance for the development and management of the area, and that it should be controlled properly. But, yes here is the but, they do come across as being hell-bent on stopping almost anything that may remotely sound like progression of any sort.

The name and address is supplied. That accurately puts to the house the precise situation in relation to this group, which claims to be friends of the Sceale Bay area but which is really a group of malcontents who want to preserve a small area for their own activities at the expense of the overall community.

There is another matter that I want to speak about today. I was very concerned to hear on the news that a tourist bus ran out of fuel some 40 kilometres south of William Creek. If people from interstate are going to conduct tours in South Australia, that is a very good thing and we want tourists to come here. However, the people who operate these services have a responsibility to ensure that they properly look after their paying customers. If that was a person carrying a charter with an aircraft company, they would be in very serious trouble, because they have a duty of care to their passengers. To run out of diesel 40 kilometres south of William Creek is just unforgivable. When they went through Marree, I am told that, because they did not have an account there, they did not put in any fuel; they just drove on. They did not even have a UHF radio, and for some $320 or $330 you can have a UHF radio in these buses. There are repeater stations all along the way.

When they ran out of diesel, the people had to walk in. I have been reliably informed that they became somewhat disoriented and had to actually lie down on the road and have a sleep; they were wandering off the road! There were aged people and a lot of people who are not residents of this country. It is a dangerous situation, particularly this time of the year. I think we need to look at it very carefully.

I do not want to regulate people, but I think it ought to be conditional on coming into the state, so if people are going to go into that sort of country, they have a minimum of safety requirements. They should have a spare jerry can of diesel; a UHF radio; a satellite phone; and a few things like a second fan belt. They should have an understanding of what is required in the bush, and take adequate supplies of water and food for emergencies. If you are between Marree and William Creek at night, it is a pretty isolated part of the world.

Time expired.