Nature-Based Tourism

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (15:00): Thank you, sir. My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. Can the minister update the house on how the Marshall Liberal government is assisting nature-based tour operators during the COVID-19 pandemic?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (15:00): I thank the member for Flinders for his question, a very relevant question particularly to members who represent regional South Australia, where we find many of our nature-based tourism operators. They tend to operate their businesses, because of the nature of their businesses, in national parks and on Crown land.

Yesterday, we had the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure talking similarly to me, in that he tends to find that, because of the nature of his portfolio, he is a landlord to many people who operate out of government facilities or spaces and places. That is similar to the situation I find myself in: there are many people who operate within our natural assets. Many of these businesses are not only small businesses but microbusinesses. They are run by mums and dads or individuals. They are not large businesses by any means. They have very limited cash flow and, of course, they rely on people visiting particular destinations to experience and immerse themselves in these natural places.

Unfortunately, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, we have had a situation where very significant restrictions have been placed on the lives of not just South Australians but visitors from interstate and overseas, and that really has cut off the pipeline of people who are able to visit our regions, and I do emphasise regions because these destinations are largely in regional South Australia.

In the member for Flinders’ electorate in particular we've got nature-based tourism operators who pay fees and charges to the Department for Environment and Water for, perhaps, access to one of the national parks, like Lincoln National Park. I also think of the shark cage diving operators who pay quite a significant fee, which ends up going largely towards research and development in that area of shark cage diving and marine-based research.

However, because of the situation with COVID-19, we have seen the number of visitors going to these destinations, paying for the services provided by these small and micro businesses, significantly diminish. So it has been a great pleasure to be able to do just a little bit to take off that pressure by waiving some government fees and charges for operators in national parks, on the Crown land that I have responsibility for, for the next six months.

That is relief that accumulates to around about $850,000. Some of that is down to very small fees, but some is quite substantial when it comes to renting government facilities. That will enable around 300 commercial tour operators and nature-based tourism operators to have that relief. It will enable them to have one less bill coming through the door, one less cost burden, and enable them to focus on getting through this time.

As the Prime Minister says, he wants us to try wherever possible to enable businesses to hibernate through these difficult times when the pipeline of work, when the pipeline of visitors and income have been curtailed or cut off entirely. We want businesses to hibernate, build their resilience and get through to the other side. One way that we can do this is to provide relief to businesses around government some fees and charges. In this, it might seem small in some cases, but actually it can have a very substantial impact by taking the foot off the throats of some of these operators, giving them the capacity to get through and just taking that pressure and stress off in these difficult times.