Coast Protection Policy

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (14:17): My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. Will the minister update the house on the government's commitment to both invest in and protect our precious coastline?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (14:18): I thank the member for Colton for his question. I know that he is a passionate advocate for the part of Adelaide's metropolitan coastline that he represents. It has been a pleasure to go down to his electorate on a number of occasions to work with him on strategies that the new government has to protect our city's precious coastline. Our state has 5,067 kilometres of coastline, much of which is under unique pressure but we know that, because of the population of metropolitan Adelaide and the fact that it is a coastal city, we have particular pressures along metropolitan Adelaide's coastline, no more so than in the member for Colton's electorate and specifically in West Beach.

The coast protection policy that the Liberal Party released in the lead-up to the 2018 state election had five key platforms. One was on replenishment, increasing the replenishment of sand deposits on Adelaide's beaches. In particular, a lot of this will be focused on West Beach. We know that that is a particular weak point in our metropolitan coastline and there is a need to dramatically increase the amount of sand on that beach. We will be investing in replenishment at a number of sites along the metropolitan coastline, but particularly at West Beach because we know the vulnerabilities of that part of our coastline.

The new government is also very keen to set up a research and development fund when it comes to coastal protection, specifically looking at opportunities to protect our beaches against storm events and against increasing erosion, and looking at ways that we can retain sand on our beaches—not just dumping sand on our beaches and reticulating it around our beaches. That's part of the process of maintaining Adelaide's beaches, but we do need to do things differently. We need to be continually innovating when it comes to coastal protection. Setting up a research and development fund will enable us to partner with universities, in particular, and look for new opportunities to do this work well.

The new government is incredibly interested in seagrass restoration. We know that not only do seagrasses provide critical habitat for marine life but they also can protect our coastline from storm events and erosion. They can also become a very useful carbon sequestration device, which I'm particularly interested in. I had the opportunity to speak to the Premier's Climate Change Council recently about the opportunities to trigger a blue carbon industry here in South Australia through re-establishing seagrasses. We can get multiple benefits from that approach, including that potential new industry.

We are very keen to develop a system of metropolitan wetlands, which look at filtering water before that water enters Gulf St Vincent. We are looking for opportunities to remove sediments, nutrients and pollutants from our watercourses prior to water entering the gulf, and that would have significant benefit to our natural marine environment.

Finally, we are very keen to look at developing artificial reefs in our marine environment. When it comes to artificial reefs, there are many options but, in particular, we are interested in looking at shellfish reefs. I know there is one in the member for Narungga's electorate, at Ardrossan, which has been developed in partnership with the federal government, the state government and the not-for-profit sector. The habitat, the jobs that can be recreated around that—both in fishing and in the construction—is something we are very keen to take a look at. I thank the member for his interest in coastal protection in South Australia and look forward to working with him as this government drives forward this reform.