MID NORTH REGIONAL LAND USE FRAMEWORK

The Hon. C.V. SCHAEFER (15:25): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Urban Development and Planning questions about the Mid North Regional Land Use Framework.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C.V. SCHAEFER: I have been reading with absolute astonishment the regional land use framework for the Mid North (a draft consultation of some 55 pages), because a plan indicates to most people something that is moving forward rather than a statement of the present. The only thing I have been able to discern from this plan is a map on page 23 showing environmental and cultural assets and, I presume, the predicted plan for them. A blue line marks protected coastal habitats, features and existing developments by establishing coastal zones and managing future development. That line runs from south of Wandera East to well north of Port Germein. It is joined then to the north by yet another protected area. My questions are:

1. Is this area projected also to be the marine park?

2. Is the area or is it not currently under the auspices of the Coastal Development Branch?

3. Is it or is it not under the auspices of the Natural Resources Management Board?

4. How many of these bureaucracies are overlapping in order to draw another set of lines on a map?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (15:27): The Mid North Regional Land Use Framework—and a Far North Land Use Framework was issued at the same time—relates to land use and specifically zoning. A number of agencies, obviously, are concerned with how land use happens, but it is the job of the Department of Planning and Local Government, Planning SA, to be concerned with zoning. Quite clearly, one issue that has come up in recent times has been the protection of coastal areas, and there are a number of good reasons for that.

One reason, of course, is increasing concern about climate change and rising sea levels. Of course, our coastal regions are under a level of attack that is much greater than previously envisaged. It is therefore important that we preserve what we have left of our coastline. Recently, we encountered issues in relation to the outer council areas. For example, we have the Eyre Peninsula Coastal Strategy, which was developed by all local governments and councils in the area specifically to protect that coastal area.

Within that zoning, of course, existing uses are protected. If agriculture, for example, has been taking place right up to the edge of the coast, that can continue. Clearly, we need to ensure that we have protective zoning along most of our coastline to ensure that we do not get development which will ultimately be threatened by rising sea levels or, as we have seen in the eastern Eyre Peninsula, development which will endanger the amenity of some of our key coastal assets.

All that is being envisaged here is zoning that will apply for any future development in relation to that area covered by those maps. But, of course, in managing that area, the Coast Protection Board and the Natural Resources Management Board (and others) may well be involved in decisions about the future use of that land. What is important is that we should get a form of zoning for that coastal strip that protects that area from inappropriate development. That, I think, answers the key part of the question, but I point out that the regional land use framework—for the Mid North as well as for the Far North—is out for discussion and, if the honourable member (or anyone else, for that matter) wishes to make a submission in relation to that, that will obviously be considered in the final version.

Again, I make the point that, while a number of agencies might well be used in controlling use of a particular form of land, what the strategy seeks to do is to provide direction as to an appropriate form of zoning that will govern future development within that area.