NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE: ALINYTJARA WILURARA NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT REGION

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (16:18): I move:

That the report of the committee, on the Alinytjara Wilurara—APY Ranges subregion fact-finding visit, be noted.

The Natural Resources Committee fact-finding visit to the AW Natural Resources Management Region (North) has been anticipated for a long time. After being forced to reschedule a number of times over the past five years, the Natural Resources Committee finally completed its trip to the AWNRM Region (North) in April 2013.

Our hosts were the staff of the AWNRM Board/DEWNR including acting regional manager, Matthew Ward, together with Helen Donald, Doug Humann, Justine Graham and Bruce MacPherson. We also met local Anangu members of the APY Executive; the principal of the Indulkana School, Paula McGuire; and Chair of the Antakirinja Matu-Yankunytjatjara Aboriginal Corporation, and the chief executive of the Coober Pedy Council, Phil Cameron. Details of our meetings and the evidence gathered are included in the report.

There is much happening in the APY lands. Mining companies have recently discovered one of the world's largest nickel deposits, ancient water has been discovered in the deep rocks of the Palaeozoic period and there have been ongoing discussions around developing pastoral projects in partnership with Anangu, involving cattle, wild horses, camels and donkeys.

The thing I recall most vividly from our visit was the urgent calls from members of the APY Executive for action. Anangu, we heard, were tired of successive governments, state and federal, promising but not delivering, and they are very concerned for their young people who have little to do on the lands in the way of employment activities and so sometimes get into trouble. Anangu are concerned that, without enough support, their communities on their traditional lands might be doomed. A possible way forward that is widely supported is getting young people more involved in actively managing the environment and natural resources of their traditional country.

Members were quite shocked at the extent that buffel grass has spread in the APY lands. It is probably too late now to do anything but slow the spread of this pest south and east. This highly invasive plant forms a monoculture, resulting in the loss of habitat for native animals. Buffel has not been declared a weed of national significance, or even listed as a declared plant in South Australia, though efforts to make this happen are underway. To complicate matters, buffel grass is still being promoted as the pasture grass in Queensland.

The committee was enthusiastic about DEWNR and Anangu working as partners on NRM activities and projects that are meaningful to Anangu as well as meeting federal and state government objectives. Suitable NRM projects are manageable in scale, like the excellent Warru (Black-footed Rock Wallaby) Recovery Program, and may potentially include smaller pastoral or camel harvesting ventures that provide learning opportunities for people working on their traditional lands. Committee members intend to seek additional information and anticipate hearing from further witnesses on the potential for camel and other pastoral projects in the AWNRM region.

Success requires managing expectations, having realistic aims and ensuring room for flexibility around outcomes. It means providing challenges that are interesting and rewarding for people without insisting on a full-time nine-to-five work ethic. It means enabling communities to be self-sufficient, generate income, produce food, care for families and look after people in a way that gives a sense of pride and wellbeing. Committee members are looking forward to undertaking part two of this fact-finding visit and planning to visit Yalata and Maralinga in the southern part of the AWNRM region in November of this year.

I wish to thank all those who gave their time to assist the committee with this inquiry. I commend the members of the committee—the Hon. Steph Key, Presiding Member, Mr Geoff Brock MP, Mrs Robyn Geraghty MP, Mr Lee Odenwalder MP, Mr Don Pegler, MP, Mr Dan van Holst Pellekaan MP, the Hon. Robert Brokenshire MLC, the Hon. John Dawkins MLC (who will speak in a moment) and former member Gerry Kandelaars MLC—and everyone else for their contributions to this report. All members have worked cooperatively on this report. Finally, I would like to thank the committee staff for their assistance, and I commend this report to the house.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (16:23): I rise to support and endorse the remarks made by the Hon. Mr Wortley about what was an excellent trip over some four days early in May this year to the lands included in the northern part of the AWNRM Board area.

I think the Hon. Mr Wortley has given a broad summary of the issues which the committee was informed and educated about. Certainly, we had been waiting for some time to visit the area of the AWNRM Board. I will not go into the reasons for the delay here, but I think the committee eventually prevailed in getting the resources we needed to do that trip and do it properly. As many in this chamber will know, the Natural Resources Committee has nine members and so, if you have close to all of us on a trip and you have a couple of staff as well, that does involve significant resources and effort to ensure that we can move around as we need to.

I will not elaborate any further. I think the Hon. Mr Wortley has covered the issues very well and certainly I and other members of the committee look forward to visiting the Yalata-Maralinga areas and surrounding parts of the AWNRM Board region in November this year. I commend the report to the council.

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (16:25): I think I should make a few comments. I had the opportunity of being a guest of the Natural Resources Committee on this tour of the APY lands, and one of the issues raised that was very significant in my view, which was mentioned by the Hon. Russell Wortley, is buffel grass. Buffel grass has developed a monoculture in much of the APY lands, particularly from Amata all the way down towards Coober Pedy, and the great fear is that this may move even further south past Port Augusta, so it is a significant issue that members need to be aware of. It is becoming quite a pest.

The other issue that we had an opportunity to see was the conservation of the warru (the black-footed rock wallaby) which is an endangered species and some of the great work being done there to try to reintroduce colonies of warru into the APY lands. I understand there is only a very limited number of wild warru colonies still in the APY lands—I think there are two. They are using yellow-footed rock wallabies to act as surrogates, and a lot of work is being done at Monarto Zoo in relation to that.

What came out of that is that foxes and feral cats have caused the endangerment of the black-footed rock wallaby, which quite surprised me—particularly the issue of feral cats and their prevalence in the rocky outcrops in the APY lands. The other issue that that raised was employment opportunities for local APY/Anangu people in terms of working on those conservation projects, and I think that is quite substantial.

I think it is imperative that we in this place become aware of some of those matters so that we can work on solutions to some of those critical conservation issues. I commend the report to this council.

Motion carried.