Parliamentary Committees

Natural Resources Committee: Kangaroo Island Natural Resources Management Region

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (15:55): I move:

That the 100^th report of the committee, on the Kangaroo Island NRM Region Fact-Finding Visit 5-7 November 2014, be noted.

In early November 2014, the Natural Resources Committee visited Kangaroo Island's Natural Resources Management region. It was the committee's first visit to the island since 2009. As with previous committee visits, native vegetation management remains a source of debate. Kangaroo Islanders face a number of disadvantages compared to mainland South Australia: high transport costs, longer times to ship produce off the island, and difficulties attracting investment were all mentioned many times by witnesses.

It was clear that there was a difference of opinion between Kangaroo Island Council and Natural Resources Kangaroo Island over what constitutes appropriate development on the island. Members heard of a number of proposed developments that have been unable to proceed. The committee suggested that the soon-to-be-appointed Kangaroo Island commissioner may well be placed to bring the two sides together. Issues that concerned Kangaroo Island Council in particular were roadside vegetation clearances for improved road safety, marine park legislation, and plantation forestry.

The council suggested it needed greater control of roadside vegetation and criticised the veto DEWNR has on development proposals, which require referral to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation. However, councils should be careful what it wishes. While development for the island is desirable to ensure its long-term future, development needs to be sensitive to the island's unique qualities.

Maintaining biodiversity and the integrity of native vegetation, including on roadsides, is important for wildlife and also for tourists (in particular, highly valued overseas tourists). Members were impressed with the work of DEWNR animal and pest control officers, who are in the final stages of removing feral goats and deer, and are also attempting to tackle more difficult pests, including feral cats, feral pigs and peacocks, I understand, with very limited funding. The levels that the officers go to to see the removal of these feral species is quite remarkable, and I commend them for their efforts in this.

Koala management is a continuing issue on Kangaroo Island. Committee members were again made aware of the high recurring costs of the sterilisation program and wondered whether it might be more cost-effective for non-government organisations to do this work.

However, committee members understood that it would perhaps be unfair to compare the costs of managing feral animals with that of managing koalas, given that culling is certainly not a political option. Koalas and their negative impact on vegetation needs to continue to be managed, with consideration given also to their role as a tourist drawcard.

Committee members were also impressed with the efforts of two entrepreneurial landholders involved in marron farming. They saw considerable potential for these enterprises to expand, building on the island's clean, green reputation and relatively abundant water resources. I must say, at one of those places they actually had a dam of one gigalitre of storage—quite remarkable—more storage than the local water source for Kingscote, if I am right. There remain some hurdles, particularly in areas of predation of marron by birds, and one of these landholders actually uses nets over their ponds to try to limit bird predation.

I wish to thank all those who gave their time to assist the committee with this visit. In particular, I would like to thank the member for Finniss Michael Pengilly MP, who made time to meet the committee, even though it was a very difficult time for him with his mother's passing on the final day of our visit. The committee did send Mr Pengilly a condolence card after our visit, and I would like to take the opportunity to put on record the committee's heartfelt condolence to Mr Pengilly on the passing of Mrs Maureen Pengilly on 7 November 2014.

Some of the other highlights I would like to mention are work being undertaken to introduce tourist walking trails, particularly in the Flinders Chase National Park. These are high-value initiatives, seeking to get high-value international tourists to actually undertake some remarkable walks through Flinders Chase National Park. Another highlight was the visit to the farm of Andrew Heinrich and the soil conservation that he was undertaking on his farm using kikuyu pastures to provide stability and to try to avoid erosion that occurs at certain times of the year because of the heavy rainfall in the area.

Andrew also raised the issue that farmers face (particularly farmers who have good conservation credentials) in terms of native veg clearing. I believe he raised a very important issue about the fact that those who behave well should be given more credit for the initiatives they take in terms of protection of native vegetation. Hopefully, the minister could take some notice of the issues that Andrew Heinrich actually raised.

Finally, I would like to commend the members of the committee—the Presiding Member the Hon. Steph Key MP, Mr Jon Gee MP, Mr Chris Picton MP, Mr Peter Treloar MP, the Hon. Rob Brokenshire MLC, and the Hon. John Dawkins—for their contribution to this report. All members, as usual, have worked hard and cooperatively on this report. Finally, I would also wish to thank the assistance of our committee staff at the time: Patrick Dupont, who is the committee secretary, and David Trebilcock, who has now left the committee but has been a marvellous research officer. I wish him well in his future endeavours. I commend the report to the council.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (16:04): I rise to support this motion. I also indicate that the Hon. Mr Brokenshire has indicated that he will not participate in this motion, but supports it going through and is very happy for it to go through today.

I think the importance of visits like this by a committee such as the Natural Resources Committee is one that cannot be overstated. I think it is always appreciated by local members and the presiding member of our committee, the Hon. Steph Key, goes to great lengths to make sure that local members, and even members of this place who have an interest in a matter, are always invited to participate in our regional visits. I think that is something that our committee holds to be very important.

It is interesting that in recent times the Premier has dictated that all standing committees must take at least one regional visit, and while I commend that I think it should not have to be dictated by the Premier. Certainly our committee makes a regular occasion of these visits. I think we like to try and get to every board within our jurisdiction at least once in a four-year election cycle. Now, that is not always quite possible. Certainly the last visit that this committee made to Kangaroo Island was in 2009, but there are sometimes issues of timing and sometimes of resources too, as the Hon. Mr Kandelaars will attest.

I unfortunately was not able to remain on the island for the whole of the visit, but what I was able to participate in was very informative and I must say enjoyable. It is a part of South Australia that I always enjoy visiting, and, while the Hon. Mr Kandelaars did highlight some of the challenges the island and all islands will always have, they also have great resilience and there are many people on that island who have been there for a large number of generations.

There are a couple of things I would like to highlight in my recollections of that visit, including the extraordinary revegetation project that had been undertaken with a lot of work from local authorities on what is private land at Cygnet River. I thought it was quite extraordinary to see what had been basically cleared cropping land in an area that I would say was far too wet to be successful cropping land, but these decisions were made probably over a century ago. That land has been revegetated with a lot of voluntary effort and I was very impressed by what had happened there.

Also, as the Hon. Mr Kandelaars has mentioned, there is the very good work being done with feral animals. Kangaroo Island is quite famous for its very fortunate lack of some animal pests, but it does have significant challenges with feral goats, feral deer, feral cats, and feral pigs. I think certainly in the western end of the island where there are fewer people there are more of the challenges presented by these animals. I think the board is doing significantly good work there with very limited funding. I think they are making the money go a long way with their local knowledge in managing those animals. Certainly, for the future of the island, I very much support the recommendation that indicates that the government ought to provide some more assistance towards managing particularly those four feral species.

In closing, I just wish to add my comments and thanks to the presiding member, the Hon. Steph Key, to all other members of the committee and to the committee secretary, Mr Patrick Dupont. Of course, I also thank David Trebilcock, who has retired from the position as the committee's research officer. He was in that position for the entire time that I served on the committee, up until the end of last year.

David was passionate and he put a tremendous amount of effort into the preparation of reports. Even sometimes when the committee perhaps watered down a little bit of that passion, he took that in the very best way. He had an extraordinary ability and, I suppose, a willingness, to transcribe conversations that he would tape when we did not have Hansard with us. If we were out on site, he would make sure he had the best possible tape recorder, and he would love to transcribe the presentations that were made to us that were not formal evidence, but it was still valuable to do that.

Having been tasked many years ago to do that by the Rural Council of the Liberal Party, I can attest to the fact that transcribing like that, particularly if you are not a trained typist, is a very slow job. I pay great tribute to Hansard's ability to do that work, but also I congratulate David again for the way in which he almost sought the opportunity to do that. With those words, I commend the report to the council.

Motion carried.