Pastoral Lands

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:03): My question is to the Minister for Environment. Has the minister received advice that the draft pastoral lands bill exempts the rangelands from the objects and enforcement provisions of the Landscape South Australia Act?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (15:03): I thank the deputy leader for her question. She raises a very valid point about ensuring that the draft pastoral act intersects appropriately with the landscape act. This is something that, as the minister responsible for the landscape act, I am working very closely with the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development to ensure that we get right.

There needs to be an appropriate intersection between these acts that ensures that conservation of our very fragile pastoral lands is sustained. They are in a part of our state that is renowned not only for its conservation value but also its productivity with regard to the very important pastoral industry when managed effectively and appropriately.

We know that the management of our pastoral lands is a real challenge; it requires a high level of experience. That is often why pastoral properties are passed down from generation to generation, and when they change hands we can actually experience environmental problems as a result of mismanagement, and unfortunately that has happened over the years.

As a stakeholder minister with regard to the reform of the pastoral act, I want to make sure that we get the conservation balance right, and I am working extremely closely with the other ministers—not just the Minister for Primary Industries, but other ministers, particularly and including the Minister for Energy and Mining, whose electorate encompasses much of that land—to ensure that we do strike the balance. I am continuing to receive advice as to the primacy issues with regard to the landscape act and its role in supporting and potentially underpinning certain aspects of the new pastoral legislation.