Native Vegetation

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (14:42): My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. Can the minister update the house on the new interim guidelines for managing—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, please.

Mr TEAGUE: —native vegetation on roadsides across South Australia and how these will provide more flexibility to local councils for managing vegetation while retaining important environmental values?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (14:42): I thank the member for Heysen for his question regarding the clearance of native vegetation along regional and rural roadsides in South Australia. This may not sound like the most exciting topic for a question but it is because I know that it means a very significant amount to members of this house who represent regional South Australia.

This is an issue which has been much vexed in regional communities. It presents particular challenges to local councils in regional South Australia in terms of the management of native vegetation along roadsides and not only local councils but the transport department as well, which also has a responsibility for dealing with native vegetation along our more substantial roads in regional South Australia.

We must acknowledge up-front that native vegetation has a very important environmental role because of such significant clearance within regional South Australia, which was obviously undertaken for agricultural purposes over many decades. Most of the remnant vegetation that we find in regional South Australia are the intact corridors along roadsides, so it provides critical environmental corridors, not only for native animals to travel but also for rare species of plants to be found and to be gathered for further propagation.

We acknowledge the important role that native roadside vegetation plays, but equally we acknowledge the particular challenges, from a safety point of view, that native vegetation can pose. It can grow quickly, it can get out of control, it can cause problems with lines of sight and it can create areas for native animals to frequent and then move into the path of oncoming vehicles. Native vegetation along roadsides, while important from an environmental point of view, provides significant risks.

One of the challenges that has been raised with me by many of the members on this side of the house who represent regional electorates—and I also acknowledge the member for Giles and the member for Mawson; no doubt this is a particular issue in their electorates as well—is that the approvals around getting clearance, particularly by local councils, is challenging. We are currently consulting on updated guidelines on the clearance of roadside native vegetation.

We have interim guidelines in place, which can be accessed and used straightaway. This will see a reduction in the time that native vegetation—the duration in terms of its estimated life—up to 20 years can be cleared without going to the Native Vegetation Council for approval. That currently stands at five years, so this is giving councils and the transport department quite a bit more flexibility while continuing to balance the environmental benefit that native vegetation contributes to our natural environment.

This is an issue that has been raised with me regularly when I have been visiting regional South Australia. Particularly, I remember having many conversations with the member for Flinders. As the member for Adelaide says, he is a very good host. He took me around his electorate a couple of months ago, and this came up time and time again. It was raised with me by councils on Eyre Peninsula and it is, in fact, the councils on Eyre Peninsula that have undertaken this work—the template work—which will now become the interim guidelines.

These guidelines can be accessed and viewed at www.yoursay.sa.gov.au, the state government's consultation website, and feedback can be provided until 31 December this year. This is a good initiative. It's a practical initiative, which I believe can balance safety and environmental protection.