Grievance Debate

MARINE PARKS

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:08): For the umpteenth time in this place I yet again raise the issue of marine parks and marine park sanctuary zones. Now, for the life of me I do not know what I have done, and I do not know what the people in my electorate have done, or in other electorates, or what the people on Kangaroo Island, particularly, have done, to be slain like they are by this government. At the moment we have a collective between the minister and his department of festering boils on the backs of good honest people, trying to destroy the fishing industry—recreational and professional—in South Australia. In my electorate, it is a categorical disaster. What is happening is that there has been an absolutely orchestrated campaign of a litany of lies that have come out of the department, and fed on by the minister. I think it is outrageous. There are absolutely no figures on impact for individual sanctuary zones within marine parks.

At the back of the Marine Park Regional Impact Statements Main Report published by the government, under appendix 10, there is a list of parties consulted. According to the report, there were nine DENWR staff consulted across the state, and five councils consulted around the state. In Kangaroo Island, which the most affected area, not one person from Kangaroo Island was consulted—and they call this consultation.

The report is based on theory not fact, and contains very repetitive content. If we go back to the Premier who, at one stage, was the minister for environment, he is on record as saying, when announcing out of boundaries of marine parks, that rock lobster fisheries on the western end of Kangaroo Island would be maintained. What a joke. How is taking away 35 tonnes of rock lobster (28 per cent of the KI catch) going to save that fishery? I think it is absolutely disgraceful.

There is only one meeting proposed on the island, and that is on Tuesday of next week, between 1 o'clock and 5 o'clock. How are people who are working able to get to that? How are they possibly able to get to it? Absolutely ridiculous. They are doing the same thing at Cape Jervis on Monday—1 to 5 o'clock. Nobody who works for a living can go. And they call this consultation. It is disgraceful; absolutely disgraceful.

On page 29, the gross value of the state's rock lobster catch in the Western KI zone, according to SARDI, is $651,000. Locals suggest it is $1,820,000, and I think they are the ones who would know; not bureaucrats who seemingly have no idea of where they are going.

On page 228, the mortality of Australian sea lions has been reported. Anecdotally, KI rock lobster fisherman, Wally (Graham) Walden, says that the sea lions are far too big to get in the pots, anyway. Most of them have seal spikes, I might add. Under 'Commercial fishing' in the DENR report, it states:

In aggregate, it was estimated that the impact of marine park zoning will generate the following loss of regional economic activity on an ongoing basis:

Approximately $12.60 million in gross state product (GSP) which represents 0.02 per cent of the state total...

Approximately 124 fte jobs which represent 0.02 per cent of the state total...

It is all gobbledygook that is in this report, and it is not helping at all. Also, what they are saying in the report is:

...in the first year of implementation of the management plans the opportunity costs equate to approximately $7 per household in South Australia.

Let me say to you that the KI figures show $1,400 per person on Kangaroo Island. You call this consultation or fairness? I call it absolute nonsense. And it goes on, and on, and on. This thing is not going away. People are getting more and more agitated.

Just recently, the minister accused me on the radio of having no vision. Well, I do not think he has any idea of what vision is. He is getting cranky on the radio with people who criticise his department or him at all, instead of being fair-minded about it. He could not care what happens out there. The vision I have is for a strong, sustainable seafood industry to go with the strong farming sector in my electorate, right across the Fleurieu and the Island. But he has no idea what he is talking about there—absolutely no idea. They are hiding behind this claptrap that is coming out of bureaucratic reports, which is most untested and most untruthful, and I think it is an outrageous disgrace. I call on the government to go back to the drawing board on sanctuary zones.