NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT COMMUNITY GRANTS

Ms SIMMONS (Morialta) (15:08): My question is to the Minister for Environment and Conservation. How is the government encouraging partnerships with volunteers and other groups in the community that provide important environmental benefits?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Environment and Conservation, Minister for Early Childhood Development, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister Assisting the Premier in Cabinet Business and Public Sector Management) (15:08): Members may recall that, in June this year, I informed the house about a $631,000 program to be provided to community groups to support natural resources management. I think at the time the member for—oh, he is gone—MacKillop said that it would not work, it was all too quick and that people would not get their applications in. We actually got 73 fantastic funding applications in that delivered small grants to community and volunteer groups, school recreational groups, outdoor clubs and progress associations that focused on helping local people deliver local projects in their environment.

They really came up with some terrific results. We have seen a new boardwalk by the Port MacDonnell Landcare Group to protect Shelley Beach, the Minda dunes being stabilised by the Holdfast Bay Dune Care Team and many people learning more about their local environment through school and community native garden programs. The Kersbrook Landcare Group received some funding to give the Kersbrook Stone Reserve a better future by removing weeds, pests and rubbish. Even though this group had what I understand are called the 'tongs of death', a weed killing herbicide tool, to assist them, it—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Right; there you go. The projects we funded will involve thousands of hours of grassroots work by volunteers to help control 33 pest plant species across 34 sites of revegetation, including 37 monitoring sites. We decided to take this further, and in August I announced, with the state NRM program, that there would be an expansion of this Community Grants Program. It is now a $1.5 million program and goes to 80 groups for Landcare, Coastcare and water care work across the state.

The $1.5 million includes support for the Spalding Community Management Committee to revegetate the town's old dump site with local indigenous species; the Kiwanis Club at the Barossa for the North Para River Community Restoration Project; and the Great Tracks Clean Up Crew, who will conduct trips to remove road rubbish from the Oodnadatta, Birdsville and Strzelecki tracks. As part of the state NRM program, we will also be setting aside some more substantial funding for projects that demonstrate high-level collaboration between NRM groups, landholders and communities.

I am also pleased to announce today that $5 million has been committed to support 25 projects of this sort. Projects funded include $481,000 to implement priority actions identified by the Torrens Taskforce, which includes representatives of the Friends of Gulf St Vincent, KESAB, the NRM board, the city council and some other councils—the Adelaide Hills Council and Charles Sturt council; $217,500 to the SA Murray-Darling Basin NRM board to work with local landowners in the Riverland and Murray-Mallee in the management of feral deer, pigs, goats and rabbits; and $205,000 to construct a predator-proof 100 hectare fence to protect adult black flank rock wallabies. The Pintji fence will be primarily managed by Anangu and will help transition young wallabies bred in captivity at Monarto to the wild. They are a critically endangered population.

As I have said, the purpose of this funding is not only to help these projects come to fruition but also to marry the great strength of this initiative, which was an initiative of the former minister for the environment, the member for Kaurna. I think he should be very proud of the natural resources management system—it is one of his great achievements in his 60 years on this planet today—and I think that all in the house would join me in acknowledging the member for Kaurna's birthday today.

One of the small criticisms that emerged about the NRM process is a slight disconnection with local groups. With these grants programs, we have made the reconnection of these local NRM and volunteer groups with the strength of the integrated natural resources management process. I think that what we are now seeing is the revitalisation of the land care, coast care and water care groups, the backbone of which is their volunteer groups. So, we have married that energy that we can mobilise at a local level together with the strategic planning that the NRM boards give us, and it is a fantastic partnership.