Marine Parks

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:51): Supplementary question: can the minister guarantee the independence of the regional impact statements and can he outline how they will be independent?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:51): I thank the honourable member for her most important supplementary question. The government has clearly expressed that in order to help address concern within the community and in particular around areas regarding the impact of marine parks and sanctuary zones, the government has committed to immediate formal regional impact statements in relation to those sanctuary zones. The areas that will be assessed will be Port Wakefield, Ceduna and Kangaroo Island and the assessments will be completed by 1 October 2015, as I said earlier.

The Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources is working very closely with Regions SA and PIRSA fisheries to design how the assessments will be done in the framework of this new approach. I am aware that these agencies first met, I think, just this week to move this process forward. We will be engaging an independent expert to be a key part of this process. I can assure the honourable member that the assessments will be thorough and balanced to ensure that there is absolutely no bias in the process one way or another. We are committed to having these assessments done within the first year of operation of the sanctuary zones.