Yorke Peninsula Environment Policy

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:14): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before hopefully seeking an answer from the minister for environment, water and natural resources, sustainability and climate change, and everything else.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. Maher: If you ask sensible questions, Brokey.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: I do, but I don't get sensible answers. Yesterday, we attempted to find out for very concerned farmers in particular, especially on Yorke Peninsula, where the minister and his department are heading with respect to burning stubble policies and also campfires and pit fires for tourists. I am advised that this has not occurred, but I just want to give the minister a chance to correct me because he loves that. My questions are:

1. Minister, has your department had a public consultation meeting with the farmers and community of Yorke Peninsula when it comes to this proposed policy change?

2. Is the minister aware that if the policy change says that they cannot burn within 200 metres of a township it could have serious impact on those farmers farming around the township and serious impact on feral pests such as snails?

3. If the minister has not had a public consultation for the Yorke Peninsula area, will he instruct his department as a matter of urgency to have this consultation and stop the stress that is now on farmers and their families on Yorke Peninsula?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (15:16): I thank the honourable member for the most important question and his ever hopeful attitude in this place to getting wonderful answers. He will only get them, of course, from ministers on this side of the chamber because we are the ones who have such great respect for the honourable member's role in this chamber. He has a long history, of course, with experience in opposition, experience in government, and now experience on the crossbenches, so more than most in this place.

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire: And experience in helping you as a government.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Indeed, the honourable member is very helpful to me in my life and my career as well, most often as being someone people can compare me to and say, 'Thank God you're not like him.' And that's always useful, to have someone you can stand against like that and people say, 'Well, you know, you're not quite so bad as I thought you were in comparison.' Then when we talk about those opposite the challenges are even greater, but we won't go there. I know a number of them are facing preselection battles this week, and I wouldn't want to make their job any easier or any harder—

The Hon. T.J. Stephens interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Mr President, the Hon. Terry Stephens happens to be one of the nicest Liberals I have ever come across. He is always very helpful to the Labor government, the Hon. Mr Stephens. He is one of the nicest opposition members I can—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Any intervention I can make in the Liberal Party preselection of course is going to be unhelpful for all and sundry, so I might just refrain and go back to the Hon. Mr Brokenshire's question, as I should.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Yes, I do indeed. It was question he tried to allude to yesterday not very well, but of course he has reflected on that somewhat and come back to the chamber with a more concise question. It is about consultation. Of course, I don't have a list before me—

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: It was about Yorke Peninsula, as I remember.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Well, today it was.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: That's what we thought you were answering.

The PRESIDENT: Order! Let's get to the grit of the question. Minister.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Thank you, Mr President. In terms of the consultation that the EPA has been conducting on this matter, I don't have a list before me of where those public consultations have been held. I do know, or I do think I know, that one of them was down in the south—the Onkaparinga council area comes to my memory—but I will go back and task the EPA to give me that information, to find out where around the state those consultations have been held with the public.

I just go back to the point that it's the government's policy to actually consult with communities. When we are out reviewing our policies and our processes, when we are out wanting to update a policy which may not have been updated for a number of years, our first instinct is to go and talk to stakeholders and members of the public and say, 'How has this policy worked for you in the past? How can we improve on it and make it better for the future?' I just think that's an appropriate way to deal with these issues.

Then the agency will come to me with a summary of the recommendations that have come up to them through stakeholder meetings, through public engagement processes, about how this can be approved and also with their own expert input as an informed agency with expert staff and, in this case, often scientifically trained staff. That is the appropriate course of action, not for me to stand up in here and proclaim what I think should be changed, ahead of having a report back from that public consultation and feedback that is so very vital. That is what this government stands for.

We want to engage with communities, hear from them about what changes they need and what will make their lives easier. We try to work that around the latest scientific information and best practice that we learn from interstate and overseas, and then put that into a document. Normally, it is a draft document that comes to me, and then we put it out for final consultation and review in a very short space of time before finalising that.

That is the process for the honourable member—he probably doesn't understand that because it is not the way his former Liberal government acted in this state, but by making absolute dictates and then trying to defend them. We don't work that way.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!