Marine Parks

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:31): In relation to the cost of compliance, when the professional sector loses a percentage of their acreage, will the cost of compliance imposed on the professional sector be reflected by the amount of sea floor that they have lost? For example, if they have lost 6 per cent of their area, are they still going to take 6 per cent less of the cost of compliance?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:31): Mr President, the honourable member doesn't really understand fisheries. He doesn't understand marine parks, that is for sure. He doesn't understand the processes that we were involved in buying out effort. That means the government paid people to exit the industry—and, of course, we have bought out all the effort that we were after. In fact, as I have said in this place previously, more people came to us wanting to buy them out than we were prepared to do so. More people—

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: Yes, people that actually don't use their licences in marine parks, that's what you bought.

The PRESIDENT: Hon. Ms Lensink, let him finish the answer.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: More people wanted us to be part of that voluntary buyback process. So the government has taken that into consideration, absolutely, and we have done that through our voluntary buyback process.