Recreational Fishing

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (16:15): My question is to the Minister for Regional Development. Minister, was the media story on 30 January this year the first time that, as the minister, you had seen the state government's proposal to introduce new bag size limits and sea area closures for popular fish species in South Australia?

The SPEAKER: I suspect that the question is out of order.

Mr GARDNER: The question, while it referred to a media story, did not ask for comment on a media story. The question was asking for the timing of when the minister found out and whether that time was contemporaneous with the media story.

The SPEAKER: Alright, well, it is not asking whether the story was true or not, so I will allow it.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport, Minister for Racing) (16:16): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the member for the question. I have responsibility for the survey that we are doing and the consultation that we are doing over bag size limits and other things that we are doing in recreational fishing. The thing is that it goes out for consultation. The consultation started last week. It is going to end at the end of April. The member for Frome and every other South Australian, including the 277,000 people who partake in recreational fishing each year, will all have the opportunity to get involved and to have their say about what might happen.

I must say that there has been some terrific feedback in the initial few days, and I must congratulate Lainie Anderson for an excellent article. She wrote a comment piece in the Sunday Mail just giving her views as someone who grew up fishing. She spends a lot of time on the Yorke Peninsula. She talks to a lot of people over there who go fishing, and I think that what she wrote was fairly representative and took a lot of the emotion out of some of the other early comments that have come about.

Mr Knoll interjecting:

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: And it has been interesting—

Mr Knoll interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is called to order.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: —to sort of see the opposition's reaction to this, because we have the minister responsible—

Mr Knoll: Why didn't you ask for the science? Why don't you ask for the scientific basis for why we're doing it in the first place?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: I plead for your protection, sir, from this yapping dog over there.

The SPEAKER: Well, no. Since the minister is about to try to make the opposition's attitude to this relevant, no wonder they rise.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: What we have had is the shadow spokesperson responsible ring us up and say, 'Can we have a briefing on the science?' We have had the member for Chaffey, who is not responsible for recreational fishing, ringing up all the radio stations saying, 'We don't believe the science.' Well, at least the opposition spokesman responsible for recreational fishing has rung up and asked to see what the science is, and we gave him a full briefing last Friday. We have offered your whole party room a full briefing on it. What I must say is that the Hon. Mr Ridgway in another place is doing the right thing, getting informed of things. Some other people over there just want to get on the media and have their say without being informed.

Mr Knoll: Which is exactly what he did.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: The science is all there.

Mr Knoll: He said, 'We want to look at the science before we make a decision.'

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: I know what he said, but he is not the person responsible from the other side, and what he would be better off doing is actually—

Mr Knoll: Asking for the science.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: What he would be better off doing and what would be a more productive use of his time and better for those recreational fishers out there who enjoy recreational fishing is actually—

The SPEAKER: Point of order.

Mr GARDNER: This is actually well outside the bounds of 98.

The SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order.