Natural Resources Management

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (14:40): My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. Can the minister update the house on the Marshall Liberal government's commitment to deliver decentralisation of natural resources management across the state as part of its landscapes reform?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (14:40): I thank the member for Heysen for his question. I know he is very interested in the decentralisation of natural resources management in this state and the creation of a series of regional landscape boards across the state to ensure that communities have the opportunity to feed directly into the management of their natural environment, which is so important to the sustainability of not only the local environment but also the social and economic aspects of regional communities, as well as ensuring that we've got productive, healthy, local landscapes where food can be produced and livelihoods can be upheld as well as being overlaid by the preservation and revitalisation of biodiversity across the landscape.

We went to the last election with a very clear promise. We had picked up that people in South Australia, particularly in regional communities, were dissatisfied with the centralised approach of natural resources management. We would create a new series of boards, called the landscape boards of South Australia, and they would put influence and power back into the hands of regional communities, and that is exactly what we are doing. Of course, the Landscape South Australia Act passed parliament late last year, and now we are in the process of implementing those very important reforms, the most substantial reforms to the management of our private landscape across the state over the last couple of decades.

We said we would get back to basics, focusing on water management, sustainable agricultural programs, pest control—pest animals and pest plants—and also ensuring that biodiversity has the space not only to survive but also to thrive across connected landscapes. We are now in a process where we have appointed the chairs of the eight regional landscape boards from one end of the state to the other. I am delighted that we've got a really diverse group of people who have come together to chair those landscape boards—people with practical experience in managing the land but also people with governance experience, people with financial management experience and people, of course, with strong links to the communities through which they will build on those and be able to effectively manage that natural environment.

This is a set of reforms that we know regional South Australia has been crying out for. We are really looking forward to seeing those boards come together. As I mentioned, we've got the chairs in place, but now we've got an active process for applications invited for people to be part of those landscape boards, and those are open at the moment. I would encourage people here to reach out to their contacts in their communities—people who are passionate about environmental management, people who have that local knowledge and understanding of the environment—to put their hand up and be part of these reforms.

This is a unique once in a generation opportunity, at least, to get involved and be part of shaping our natural environment and ensuring we've got that grassroots action in place with more money on the ground, partnerships—particularly with local councils, particularly with environmental non-government organisations—so that we can get that landscape-scale environmental recovery, and we can also pair that in with a productive economic landscape, producing food and fibre for our South Australian economy as well.