Regional Housing

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (14:18): My question is to the Deputy Premier. What is the minister doing to assist developers with the clearance of native vegetation to enable housing developments in regional areas? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr McBRIDE: I have been contacted by private developers who are attempting to address the housing shortage in our region by developing land that is zoned residential. Some of the blocks have native vegetation on them, but the cost to clear the land is economically unviable. These developers say the Native Vegetation Council are proposing unrealistic expectations regarding offsets and adding unnecessary restrictions. Responses I have received say that the minister is unable to intervene.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, Minister for Workforce and Population Strategy) (14:19): Yes, I am happy to answer this question, although perhaps not entirely to the satisfaction of the member. To commence with where you ended, the minister doesn't have power of direction over the Native Vegetation Council. They operate under the act and they are entitled to make the decisions according to law. But that law is currently out for consultation.

I am proposing to bring in some amendments to the Native Vegetation Act which include various elements, one of which is to have a simpler approach to the way in which native vegetation is classified to make it easier for people to understand whether or not they are going to be able to undertake clearance. It is on YourSAy until 29 May. You are very welcome to participate in giving some feedback on that, and I am sure that your constituents who have contacted you might be interested in doing the same.

But I do want to put the context on this that the Native Vegetation Act, when it came in, did something very important, which was that it stopped the broadscale clearance that was occurring in South Australia. It was largely tapering off at that point anyway because so much had already been cleared, but it said, 'This is no longer how we want to treat the habitat for our wildlife.' In South Australia, although we have cleared much and we have an enormous amount of land under primary production, much of which has a healthy mix of native vegetation on it, we can't keep losing native vegetation and expect to keep a degree of healthy nature.

The young people in the audience listening to this will know that if they are to have a healthy future, they have to have a healthy planet. Part of that starts close to home. That can be challenging when you want to do something individually on a particular site, when what looks like a bit of scrub appears to be an impediment. But the truth is, that bit of scrub is the habitat for birds, for reptiles and for mammals, and without those and without their interactions as an ecosystem then the likelihood of our continuing to be able to have healthy primary production and continuing to have healthy water flow, on which we depend, becomes more and more remote.

The Native Vegetation Act does something important. The Native Vegetation Council operates under that act, as it should. We are trying to at least have some simplification for people, and I invite you to participate in that.