Natural Resources Committee: Fleurieu and Kangaroo Island Fact Finding Visit

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (11:45): I move:

That the 123^rd report of the committee, entitled Fleurieu and Kangaroo Island Fact Finding Visit, be noted.

Over two days in June 2017, the Natural Resources Committee visited a range of sites in the Adelaide Mount Lofty Ranges NRM region, the South Australian Murray-Darling Basin NRM region and the Kangaroo Island NRM region. This is the committee's report on those visits. The committee was keen to ensure that we followed up on a request from the member for Finniss to visit Kangaroo Island, in particular, as he had been raising a number of issues with the Natural Resources Committee. The visits described here are part of the committee's regular visits to the state's eight NRM regions.

The committee always tries to cover all NRM regions during the four-year parliamentary term, but sometimes it can be difficult to visit them all, especially the more remote ones. Here, I must note that we have repeatedly tried to get to the South Australian Arid Lands region without success this term so far, sadly. However, as the committee always tries to do its best to meet people on the ground, we feel that this is an important visit we would like to make before the end of the year.

On this particular visit were fellow committee members the Hon. Robert Brokenshire MLC, the Hon. John Dawkins MLC, the Hon. John Gazzola MLC, the member for Napier and the member for Flinders. The member for Finniss also joined the committee as part of the tour, even though he was clearly unwell with a cold; we thank him for making the effort. (I thought I had better clarify 'clearly unwell'.) Over the next two days of the trip, the committee visited a range of sites, including:

a swamp and nature play area at the Mount Compass Area School. I have to say that that was an outstanding success, and the Mount Compass Area School really needs to be congratulated;

the fabulous Harvest the Fleurieu, which is a relatively new local business at Mount Compass dedicated to showcasing and supporting local produce and producers; and

other sites, including a DEWNR-funded low-flow bypass device being trialled on a private property at Mount Jagged and Smith Bay on Kangaroo Island on the site of the controversial proposed Kangaroo Island Plantation Timbers export wharf facility.

Members also visited the adjacent Yumbah Aquaculture abalone farm. Members were very impressed by the work Yumbah Aquaculture had done in building a multimillion dollar aquaculture business, employing a significant number of Kangaroo Island locals in the venture. Members look forward to being kept updated on the Development Assessment Commission process currently underway for the proposed KIPT wharf, as clearly the existing aquaculture business should be protected.

In addition, it needs to be said that everyone we spoke to on the island was in agreement that a way to clear and export the former managed investment scheme timber plantations needed to be found. For example, as the committee has heard previously, these eucalyptus plantations—left largely unmanaged on the island—provide a refuge for feral animals and overabundant native species, as well as having other undesirable effects. However, it was abundantly clear to the committee that, after speaking to a range of locals, the KIPT preferred location for the timber export wharf at Smith Bay was not by any means universally supported.

Members also visited farms, including Wirrina in the AMLR NRM region and Bellevista on Kangaroo Island, both of which are practising and demonstrating a range of yield-enhancing sustainable agricultural techniques supported by their respective NRM boards and the department. Throughout the trip, committee members had an opportunity to speak to many of the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources staff as well as members and staff from local government and a number of interested community members.

At Harvest the Fleurieu at Mount Compass, the committee met with local irrigators together with department and Natural Resources SAMDB staff. Here, members heard a range of perspectives on water resources management, including some passionate arguments from local irrigators and DEWNR officers both for and against the low-flow bypass devices. Members look forward to teasing out some of the more detailed evidence about some of the issues raised with us in what was a fairly informal setting at Mount Compass when the committee returns to the Fleurieu to take formal advice with Hansard on 21 and 22 September.

I thank the member for Napier, in particular, for his suggestion to the assembled people that we should go back to take evidence with Hansard. We had a very useful informal discussion, but it will be good to formalise that information, so we thank him for suggesting that. The committee also thanks the Alexandrina Council Mayor, Keith Parkes, for the invitation to return and the generous offer to provide the Alexandrina Council chambers as a venue for the hearing. That will really help us if we have Hansard with us.

The committee also intends to use its September visit to Goolwa, following another visit in late August, to delve into community perspectives on water resources management in the Murray-Darling Basin. I will be seeking input from those of you whose electorates incorporate parts of the basin about the best way to progress this proposal in support of local communities. The members for Chaffey, Hammond and Finniss have already offered their assistance to the Natural Resources Committee, so thank you again for that.

Amongst those accompanying the committee on the various legs of this trip and providing comprehensive background information and commentary were Natural Resources KI Regional Director, Damian Miley; KI NRM Board Presiding Member, Richard Trethewey; Natural Resources AMLR Regional Director, Brenton Grear; Alexandrina Council Mayor, Keith Parkes; Kangaroo Island Mayor, Peter Clements; KI NRM Board members; and staff from the NRM regions and DEWNR.

The committee's fact-finding visits to the NRM regions have many benefits, not only allowing the NRC to see firsthand the work being done on the ground by regional staff but also giving board members and community members the opportunity to communicate directly with our committee. As always, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the NRM boards, the volunteers and the departmental regional staff who do such excellent work under very challenging conditions. Every time the committee visits the regions, we are, without exception, extremely impressed by the hard work and dedication shown by all the people we meet who work with and for the regional NRM boards.

I commend the members of the committee for their contributions: the members for Napier, Colton and Flinders; the Hon. Robert Brokenshire; the Hon. John Dawkins; and the Hon. John Gazzola. All members have worked cooperatively on these deliberations and this report. Finally, I would like to thank the parliamentary staff for their assistance: Mr Patrick Dupont, Ms Barbara Coddington and Dr Meredith Brown, who has joined us more recently. I commend this report to the house.

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (11:54): I rise to speak to the report on the Fleurieu and Kangaroo Island Regional Fact Finding Visit. It always gives me great pleasure to talk on these reports. Members of this committee always say that they enjoy very much this part of our work, the fact-finding missions. As the Presiding Member, the member for Ashford, indicated in her contribution, we are attempting to visit all the state's NRM regions within the life of this parliament, and hopefully we will get there. We are certainly planning to, but there is at least one region we need to find time to visit.

This report relates particularly to our trip on 7 and 8 June when we visited the AMLR, SAMDB and KI natural resources management regions. Unfortunately, as a member, I was not able to be part of the committee on the first day, but I did take great pleasure in joining the committee on the second day in Kangaroo Island.

I actually think these fact-finding missions have great benefits. Not only do they allow us as a committee to see firsthand the work being done on the ground by regional staff but they also give us an opportunity to meet local NRM board members who invariably are members drawn from the local community. They are often landowners and those in business who rely on our natural resources for their production. It is in their interest to maintain long-term sustainability not just of the environment but of the production itself.

As the Presiding Member has mentioned, on day one, when I was not in attendance, the committee visited the Mount Compass School Swamp, where there has been some very good reclamation work done. After that, the committee viewed Sam Court Reserve Wetland, a stormwater harvesting project behind the new shopping centre at Mount Compass. The committee went on to meet with a number of irrigators entitled Harvest the Fleurieu, which was based around Mount Compass.

Interestingly, some common themes came up that we on this side, who generally represent the regions of South Australia, hear consistently in relation to the significant increase in NRM levies, the cost of water licences and the emergency services levy. Former Alexandrina Council mayor Kym McHugh is a farmer in those regions. He said his NRM levy had gone up from $940 last year to almost $2,400 in one year. As well as that, his emergency services levy was in excess of $2,000. Rising power costs were an impost on irrigators as well. This whole cost-of-living and cost-of-production issue just goes on and on.

The committee looked at low-flow bypasses. People have various points of view on that. I flew into Kingscote the next morning. I was picked up by one of the NRM staff members and we visited the Smith Bay and creek catchment. Smith Bay has become rather controversial at the moment because currently the Yumbah abalone farm is situated there. It has been successful. They have sites not only at Smith Bay but also at Port Lincoln on Eyre Peninsula and another one in Tasmania, I think. It is a well-structured and profitable land-based abalone farm.

They are at Smith Bay and have been for some years, but there is a proposal, which the committee took evidence on at a previous meeting. On this occasion, the committee visited the site where there is a proposal to build and develop a port at Smith Bay adjacent to the Yumbah abalone farm in order to export plantation logs.

The history of plantations on Kangaroo Island is well known. Much of the western half of the state went under blue gums—mostly blue gums but a few pines as well—as a result of managed investment schemes. God forbid if there is ever another one of them going on; it is nothing but disaster. People from all walks of life see it as an opportunity to reduce their tax. Nobody wants to pay more tax than they need to, but these particular schemes were attractive, for whatever reason, to some people all those years ago. It was probably two decades ago now. A lot of that money from those schemes went into blue gums not just on Kangaroo Island but in the South-East as well.

Now it has reached a point where those trees are mature. It is time to remove them and that will be a good thing. It is just a matter of how they are processed and removed from the island. The committee observed that there seemed to be some discrepancy in the evidence given, particularly around the depth of water at Smith Bay. I have yet to see some of the questions answered in relation to that discrepancy. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.