KESAB Sustainable Communities Awards

The Hon. T.T. NGO (14:46): My question is to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation. Could the minister tell the chamber about the 2015 KESAB Sustainable Communities Awards winners and the great work that communities around the state are doing to raise awareness about the importance of waste reduction?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:46): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. To coincide with National Recycling Week, KESAB held its annual Sustainable Communities Awards last Friday 13 November. I was very pleased to be invited to present some of the awards on the day and meet the dedicated people who are making such a huge difference in their local communities.

For almost 50 years now, KESAB has been running recycling and waste reduction programs in our state. This exceptional work has contributed to South Australia having some of the world's best recycling rates. Our most recent recycling activity study shows that South Australians are diverting almost 80 per cent of all waste away from landfill. I think the actual figure is about 79.8 per cent, but 80 per cent is safer. The Sustainable Communities Awards, South Australia's longest and largest ongoing community environmental initiative, very much exemplify this philosophy.

Each of the entries in the 2015 KESAB Sustainable Communities Awards is making a creditable difference for their local communities. It is great that this year there were over 150 category entries received by KESAB, including some first time entries from towns or organisations, as well as many schools. Entries came from all over the state, stretching as far as Fowlers Bay in the west, Farina in the north, Mount Gambier in the south, Monash in the Riverland and, of course, Kangaroo Island, which are perennial nominees.

Of course everybody is a winner in these awards but some are judged better than others and on the day the residents of Ardrossan and Barmera were joint winners of the Best Medium Town Award. Mount Gambier won the Best Large Town Award on the day. This year, Whyalla city council won the Council Project of the Year Award for its upgrade to the Whyalla Wetlands. The Ardrossan Progress Association was recognised with the Community Project of the Year Award for its work on the Ardrossan town square.

Congratulations must go to all students and staff at the Investigator College on the Fleurieu for winning the School Project of the Year Award for the improvements they have undertaken to the site around Currency Creek. I would also like to congratulate the 2015 Clean Beaches winner, which this year was Victor Harbor, which will represent SA in the Australian Clean Beaches Awards to be held in 2016.

Congratulations must also go to this year's overall winner, a wonderful little town called Mundulla, which also received the award for Best Small Town and for the appearance, amenities and facilities category. I can remember staying in Mundulla, as a young state organiser of the Labor Party, for Keith and Mundulla sub-branch meetings. It is one of the state's smallest towns, but it certainly looms large with respect to its community's vibrancy, dedication and spirit. Mundulla will now become the South Australian finalist at the Keep Australia Beautiful National Tidy Towns Award to be held in Toodyay, Western Australia and I am certain they will do our state very proud indeed.

I thank KESAB, in particular, and the sponsors for once again encouraging and motivating South Australians to make real and lasting changes within their communities. KESAB, of course, are responsible for handing out these awards every year; in fact, they put in a huge amount of effort to encourage communities to nominate. KESAB itself rarely gets the plaudits that I think it deserves as a fantastic local organisation for this state. It has been kicking goals decade after decade. Congratulations again to all the entrants, particularly the winners, and I encourage those entrants who did not win this year to try again next year and see if they can up themselves in the league table and achieve some of these fantastic awards. They are great role models for our state and our communities and they show what we can do when we work together.