Blue Carbon Strategy

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (15:01): My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. Can the minister inform the house how South Australia is demonstrating national leadership in the development of blue carbon initiatives?

Mr Malinauskas: Capitulator!

The SPEAKER: The Leader of the Opposition can leave for the remainder of question time.

The honourable member for Croydon having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (15:02): It's very sad that the opposition doesn't take the crisis of climate change seriously, isn't it?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: It is an absolute tragedy that they don't want to hear about what the government is doing to deal with climate change. All they can do is shout and make a noise. They need to calm down.

Mr PICTON: Point of order.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Climate change is—

The SPEAKER: Minister, there is a point of order.

Mr PICTON: The minister is debating the answer.

The SPEAKER: I ask that the interjections on my left cease so that I can hear the minister answer a question, which is on a very important subject. Minister.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: I am glad you agree that it is a very important subject: dealing with climate change, adapting to a changing climate and making sure that South Australia can actually benefit from that, because we shouldn't always talk about it in the negative. There are great opportunities for this state to harness the economic opportunities that may come from being a leader in adapting to and mitigating the impacts of climate change.

One of those areas that I have particular interest in is the development of blue carbon. That is the idea of storing carbon—'sequestering carbon', to use the correct term—within marine environments, particularly those quasi-marine environments along the coast such as mangroves, wetlands and seagrass. This can be win-win-win for South Australia because enhancing those environments not only stores carbon but of course it also creates a more resilient coastline. We have a lot of coastline in this state—5,067 kilometres, I often quote in this place. Some of it is very resilient. Other areas, particularly where there are population centres, can be particularly weak as a result of the pressures from those populations.

By enhancing our coastal environments for the purposes of storing carbon, we can also create a far more resilient landscape, building up the quality of those mangroves environments and looking to improve the estuarine environments along areas such as the Port River, the Gawler River, the Onkaparinga estuary. A whole range of estuarine environments in South Australia really lend themselves to being used through blue carbon.

There is also, of course, the conservation element of this. If you are increasing the resilience of these environments, if you are expanding habitat, if you are improving the amount of seagrass found offshore, you are creating habitat as well: habitat for fish and for birds in particular in the estuarine environment, wading birds. We know that South Australia plays an important role in the flyway, where particularly waders spend time in what is now known as the International Bird Sanctuary, the area north of St Kilda, heading up towards Port Wakefield.

Some would say at first glance that it's quite a low-quality environment, but when you look very closely it actually provides incredible mudflats for these wading birds, which then fatten themselves up for part of the year and then head up to the colder parts of the world to breed, around Siberia, Russia and areas of China.

These environments are unique, but they also provide blue carbon opportunities. It has been great in the last couple of weeks to launch the Blue Carbon Strategy for South Australia, a body of work undertaken by the Premier's Climate Change Council. I thank Martin Haese and his team for leading that work. We have partnered with the Goyder Institute. It's a great body of work: win-win-win—economic wins, environmental wins, carbon storage and a more resilient coastline.