Regional South Australia

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. Can the minister update the house on his recent visits to regional South Australia?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (14:51): I thank the member for Flinders for that question. I am very conscious that my portfolio and the responsibilities that I have within that portfolio have a very significant amount of their components based in regional South Australia.

We have been very clear on this side of the house that we will be a government for all South Australia, but we will have a particular focus on assisting the regions to maximise their potential, whether that be their economic productive potential or the potential of their natural environment. We know that those two things often go hand in hand. It has been my desire, since becoming the Minister for Environment and Water and in my previous role as the shadow minister, to get into regional South Australia as often as possible to connect with those communities, to understand their needs and to use what I find out from those visits to shape the policies that I am responsible for in this role as Minister for Environment and Water.

Since becoming minister, I have made every effort to get out into the regions as often as possible. I had the pleasure, within the first few days of becoming the minister, to head down to the Coorong. That is an area that the member for Hammond, the member for MacKillop in particular and the member for Finniss have talked with me so often about the importance of that fragile environment at the end of the River Murray, and so much attention needs to be given to that area.

I updated the house earlier in the week on the Coorong science summit that I have coordinated and brought together, and I will be keen to update the house on that in the future. The Coorong was one of the first places that I visited. It was great to be able to meet the many stakeholders, from fishers to shack owners to people involved in the tourism industry around the Coorong and environmentalists as well, to talk about their priorities for that area. Shortly afterwards, I had the great privilege of being able to fly over the Coorong with federal minister David Littleproud to get a real understanding of those immense bodies of water and the geography that links them together.

My first substantial visit to the regions, in terms of an overnight stay, was up to the Riverland. I made a commitment to the Minister for Agriculture and Regional Development that I would go up to the Riverland and meet the many people in his electorate who rely on a healthy working river for their livelihoods, to spend time meeting with stakeholders, business people, environmentalists, and meet with SA Water staff, Department for Environment and Water staff and NRM officers to understand more about the working environment of the mighty River Murray and the huge complexities that surround that part of our state—a real food bowl of our state and an area of our state that does a huge amount of economic lifting. However, we will only be able to do so with a healthy, natural environment. My visit to the Riverland was incredibly important, and I look forward to returning there again as a guest of the member for Chaffey.

I also had the opportunity a few weeks ago to head up into the Clare Valley and Burra. I went to Burra to open a national heritage tourism conference hosted by the National Trust. Heritage and heritage tourism is a critical part of regional South Australia's economy. It is important across the whole state, but often regional communities have particular assets which can be highlighted and be part of a heritage-tourism strategy, something our government is keen to work on. Regions mean so much to this government, and certainly as a minister in this government I am very keen to continue to support our regions.

The SPEAKER: The minister's time has expired. This is the 20^th question for the opposition. The member for West Torrens.