NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE: ANNUAL REPORT

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (16:30): I move:

That the report of the committee, being the annual report for 2009-10, be noted.

The year 2009-10 saw a new committee appointed after the March state election, as well as the expansion of membership from seven to nine members. Two members from the previous committee (the Hon. Steph Key MP and I) have provided some continuity of service to this committee in this new parliament.

A period of reduced committee activity in the lead-up to and following the election, as well as the retirement of the former executive officer Knut Cudarans in May 2010 and the consequent recruitment process, resulted in fewer reports being published than in recent years. This hiatus is an unavoidable function of our four-year election cycle, compounded by staff turnover.

In the reporting period, the Natural Resources Committee undertook 13 formal meetings, totalling 21 hours, and took evidence from 34 witnesses. Six reports were drafted and tabled in the reporting period. These were an annual report describing the 2008-09 reporting period, three reports into the Natural Resources Management levy proposals, a bushfire inquiry interim report, and a report into the Upper South-East Dryland Salinity and Flood Management Act.

Four fact-finding tours were undertaken in the 2009-10 financial year. Over the six days we were away, the committee visited the South-East, Kangaroo Island and Eyre Peninsula natural resource management regions and met with NRM board members, staff and landholders. In addition, members completed their inquiry into the Murray-Darling Basin, with a tour of New South Wales and Victorian basin catchments, taking in the Barmah Choke and Barmah Forest, Hume Dam, the Snowy Hydro Scheme and Shepparton, in November 2009.

A number of non-committee members of parliament joined the committee on three of the tours (at their own expense) where they had a particular interest. For example, Mr Michael Pengilly MP joined the committee on its visit to Kangaroo Island, which is part of his electorate; former member, Ms Vini Ciccarello MP came on the Kangaroo Island and South-East tours, while Ms Robyn Geraghty MP joined the Kangaroo Island, South-East and Murray-Darling Basin tours.

The committee continues to encourage non-committee members to attend committee hearings to observe witnesses and present evidence, as well as to attend fact-finding tours that relate to their interests and electorates. As in past years, the committee has chosen to engage with communities in their regions. The full list of meetings and fact-finding tours can be found in the text of the report. Copies of all the committee's reports, Hansard transcripts and presentations are readily available on the committee's website.

I acknowledge the valuable contribution of the committee members who left us during the year: the former presiding member, the Hon. John Rau MP; the Hon. Graham Gunn MP; the Hon. Caroline Schaefer MLC; the Hon. Lea Stevens MP; and the Hon. David Winderlich MLC. To all those who have served on the committee, I thank them for the cooperative manner in which they worked together, and I look forward to a continuation of this spirit of cooperation in the coming year.

Finally, I thank the committee staff for their support over the past year, in particular the much appreciated former executive officer, Knut Cudarans, who retired in May 2010. He consistently undertook to provide members with an exceptionally high level of service. I commend the report to the house.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins.