Kangaroo Island Tourism

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:27): This afternoon I want to make some comments in relation to the announcement made by the tourism minister last week of some regional tourism funding for South Australia, which I am grateful for. However, I think the record needs to be somewhat corrected on where some of this money is going.

The minister announced $40,000 for a media program for the Kangaroo Island Brand Alliance. That concerns me, and it concerns me because, as I interjected on the day, I understand that this group has already been given $750,000 from the KIFA budget. That gives them $790,000. This is a group that has really come out of nowhere. It was a creation that was largely organised, I understand, by KIFA, the Kangaroo Island Futures Authority.

I remember that some two or three years ago we had a meeting in Kingscote at the Ozone Hotel, with a considerable number of island people, at which this proposal for some sort of branding fixture to be put in place was raised. It ended up that everyone thought it was not worthwhile, that it was a waste of time, and really the night went nowhere. Yet here we now have this being reinvented.

I am of the view that this is money ill spent. It would have been far better if this money had gone to the Tourism KI marketing board. They are the ones who market the island, and it would have been so much better if it had gone to them. Indeed, I think it is an act of stupidity that it has gone to this other group when the TKI (as it is referred to) is struggling for funds.

It is interesting to note that the current council budget is excluding them from any funding whatsoever on the island. That is another story because, apart from one other, they will be the only district council in South Australia that does not support its regional tourism authority by way of any funding which, to me, is cutting off your nose to spite your face, particularly when the island has been lauded as a great destination—and you know the rest, so I do not need to go into that.

I think that is an issue that needs to be addressed. Why I bring it up and discuss it is that the great King Island branding situation in Bass Strait has fallen off the rails to a large extent insofar as the abattoir over there closed. We used to be able to buy King Island beef produced, slaughtered and packed, etc., on King Island. You can no longer do that. The abattoir closed because it was not successful. The dairy (the cheese factory) is still in existence, but they are having the same problem in supplying copious amounts of cheese to the large chains, I understand. They simply cannot do it. The boat is not regular enough, they have to fly it off the island, and I think this is one of the issues that is going to crop up on Kangaroo Island.

The quantity of product is what you have to have. The quantities of product on the island are wool, lamb, mutton, beef and a minuscule amount of grain. They are the quantity products. It is all very well to have everything else, and they all fit into the picture, but there is simply not enough. Honey is a prime example. There is nowhere near enough honey. One producer told me that he could supply a container a week to China if he had it. That is what they want, a container a week. There is just not enough honey. My view is also that there are now too many people running around trying to get into the honey and bee industry, and that is just making it difficult.

You have these small products like the honey and sheep cheese—and I could tell you a story about that but I will not—and various other things, which are fine and good little local products, but there is not a lot of them. My view is there has been a divide and conquer mechanism put in place by the state government to whittle down the strength of the local government authority with the commissioner, and this branding alliance thing is yet another one that is picking away at the edges, so you are breaking down the structures of the island. I do not like it and I will be monitoring it very closely.