Question Time

Election Commitments

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson) (14:55): My question is to the Minister for Climate, Environment and Water. Can the minister inform the house about the progress of environment-focused election commitments that she has been delivering as part of her portfolio as the Minister for Climate, Environment and Water?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (14:56): I want to sincerely thank the member for Mawson not only for his question but also for his ongoing commitment to environmental issues and to making sure that I am extremely well aware of the nature of those concerns and interests as they relate particularly but not exclusively to Mawson.

It is quite a pleasure to run through the achievements to date in delivering election commitments on the environment. As many members will know, I was first active in the environment movement a very long time ago—probably getting close to around the time that some people in this chamber were born—and worked for a number of years in the environment department, and then to have the honour of being the minister has been an extraordinary privilege to date.

One commitment that I would like to highlight is the 15 Aboriginal rangers, five of whom are coming on board this year. This year is leading into a referendum on a First Nations Voice to Parliament and is also the year when this parliament will be asked to consider a First Nations Voice to Parliament, and if it goes through and when it goes through we will be the first jurisdiction to have a Voice to Parliament for First Nations.

It is important to remember how much we have to learn from Aboriginal culture about engagement with country. I am personally very delighted that we are getting on with getting these Aboriginal rangers employed not only for their own sake to have employment opportunities but much more significantly in order to learn more and to celebrate more with Aboriginal culture.

We have $6 million for heritage agreements that are currently being finalised. The structure of that grant over the next four years will be rolled out. That is when private landowners, or leaseholders, have bits of land that deserve to be protected, and they can get some grants to put them under a heritage agreement and make sure that they are protected properly and fenced, and so on.

We have moved the Pastoral Unit back from PIRSA into the environment department where it always was. The rangelands need to be managed sustainably for primary production but within the context of being sustainable, and of course we are in the process of rolling out an additional $1 million over the fours years to make sure that those assessments of the land use are being managed properly.

Very early on we repealed the regulation that was brought in by the previous government which enabled private development in Flinders Chase to jump over normal processes for land clearance and native vegetation clearance. We repealed that regulation so it can never be used again. It was a disgraceful way to treat a very important part of the biodiversity.

We have written already now to the minister, the Hon. Tanya Plibersek, about supporting a World Heritage bid for the Bight, which is an issue I know is very close to the member for Mawson's heart. I still have the photograph of him with his 'Fight for the Bight' T-shirt.

With respect to the Murray, we have appointed Richard Beasley as the commissioner for the Murray. He has been working on an appropriate response to the royal commission—an updated one. He is also making sure that the new government in Canberra, a government that is finally interested in delivering the full plan, is able to get the benefit of this his advice, including the full 450 gigalitres, and using any mechanism necessary. We of course put on record the withdrawal of our support for those socio-economic criteria that got the last minister into a bit of strife with the royal commission.

We have $3 million being rolled out for Friends of Parks through the small grants program, $1 million for Landcare to enable coordination of volunteer effort, and we have been able to restore funding for the local environment centres that were cut off in the change of boundary—of course, again, it affects the member for Mawson with his Willunga centre—and we have increased funding to the peak body in order to ensure that they are able to do proper community consultation.

We have capped the number of breeding dogs that are able to be part of breeding kennels. Breeding kennels is the first step in banning puppy factories. I am looking forward to the review of the Dog and Cat Management Act that will make sure that is taking place more fully. We have increased the funding for the RSPCA by $1 million to enable better prosecutions of animal cruelty. There are others, but I have run out of time.