Tennyson Dunes

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (15:32): I rise to speak about something that is of great interest to my community, that is, the coastal environment in the seat of Lee. One of the things that I have been most proud of as a first-time MP, and one of the things that we have worked together to achieve with the community, is the protection of the Tennyson Dunes. The Tennyson Dunes, for those people who are not familiar with them, are the last tertiary dune system that we have in metropolitan Adelaide and it is also the home to some unique flora and fauna within that dune system.

There are a number of volunteer groups that work actively to protect the Tennyson Dunes, and for many years they have been seeking that the dunes have a high level of protection from the Minister for the Environment. I am very pleased that, after lobbying the minister, the Tennyson Dunes area is now declared a conservation reserve under the Crown Land Management Act.

The Tennyson Dunes area is located in one of the last parts of the Adelaide metropolitan area's coastline where the Coast Park project has not been completed. The Coast Park project is to provide a 70-kilometre shared walking and cycling path for people to come and visit the coastal environment that runs between North Haven and Sellicks and the area we have in the seat of Lee. Those areas in Semaphore Park, Tennyson and Grange are nearly the last part of the Coast Park to be completed, 25 years after this project started.

It has always been difficult and contentious because, unlike many other parts of the coastline, houses have been built right up to and including the sand dune environment. There has been a lot of concern by some residents—not all residents, but just by some residents—about having that path in front of their houses on land, which is public land, which they have had nearly exclusive access to and use of for many years.

I am really pleased to report to the house that after the Minister for the Environment declared the Tennyson Dunes area a conservation reserve he asked Professor Chris Daniels, the Chair of the Adelaide Mount Lofty Natural Resources Committee Board, to convene a group to plot the completion of the Coast Park path through this sensitive dune environment, and they have succeeded in doing that. They have picked the right alignment to respect the local ecology and they have picked the right surface treatments for the path. It shows me and the rest of the community that it is possible to complete the Coast Park path in our part of the Adelaide metropolitan area.

The state government has contributed $4 million and the local council has contributed another $4 million to fund the $8 million cost to finish this path and give the community access to this beautiful part of Adelaide's coastline. Just about everybody in the community supports it. Even a lot of residents in Tennyson, who have properties right up on the coastline, agree that there is a need for the path to give the rest of the community access to this wonderful part of the coastline. Unfortunately, a very, very small number of people in the community, particularly some of those people who live along this part of the coast, are doing everything they can to block this path. They are currently taking the council, as well as the state government, to court to try to stop this path being built.

Of course, I am on the record as always supporting the Coast Park path. I wrote a letter to the local Messengerto make absolutely clear that I think this path needs to be completed. Since then, we have seen the shadow minister for the environment come out and say that the completion of the Coast Park path will be a key election issue between me, as the Labor candidate, and the Liberal candidate that they have preselected down there—me as the local member, who supports completing this path for the benefit of the whole community, and the Liberal Party, which wants to block this path, helping that small number of residents stop this path being completed so that they can continue having access to publicly owned land and stop members of the community accessing it en masse.

Well, I can tell you, Deputy Speaker, that I did not become a member of parliament or seek to be a representative in this place to protect the small number of people trying to assert private rights over public land. This land has always been owned by the public of South Australia because all the public of South Australia should have access to it. I strongly believe that, if we complete this coast path, this will give all the community access to what they should be able to enjoy forever and a day.

The money is there, the plans are there and we are talking with the residents to make sure that we can deliver the right path. If this is going to be an election issue, then bring it on, because I will do the right thing by my community and I will stand up to those people who try to block my community from having access to the coast.