Motions

Para Wirra Recreation Park

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (15:30): I move:

That this council requests His Excellency the Governor to make a proclamation under section 33(3) of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 to abolish the Para Wirra Recreation Park.

Para Wirra Recreation Park covers 1,512 hectares and is located approximately 40 kilometres north-east of Adelaide. The proposed reclassification will allow the park to receive better recognition for the significant natural and historic values it protects and will be consistent with the government's intention to reflect how sustainable recreational opportunities are provided within the conservation framework.

The government is committed to the ongoing provision and development of recreational opportunities in parks, and this is clearly demonstrated by the release for consultation of South Australia's nature-based tourism action plan. To allow for the change in category, the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 requires that a recreation park be first abolished and that the subject land then be proclaimed as a conservation park. The abolition of the recreation park may only occur by a resolution passed by both houses of parliament, and notice of a motion for this resolution must be given at least 14 sitting days before the motion is passed.

The Para Wirra Conservation Park will not be used for mining purposes. The government will proclaim the park under section 30(1) of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972, and not with a section 43 proclamation permitting mining access. I would like to congratulate the Friends of Para Wirra Recreation Park and the broader community for agitating for this change, and I am very pleased; I think I have the support of the majority of members for this change to go forward.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (15:32): I rise to support the motion on behalf of the Liberal Party, and I am delighted to do so. I have had a long association with not only the Friends of Para Wirra group—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: Life membership I think.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: No, not life membership—honorary membership I recently had bestowed on me, which I am not sure I deserved. I am pleased to say that there are a number of representatives of the Friends of Para Wirra group who are in the gallery, and that may be out of order, but I wanted to put that on the record because I am delighted that those people who have put so much work and effort into the Para Wirra park over a very long time are here to at least see this council abolish the current status, which will then allow for the conservation park status to be gazetted.

I should also put on the record my long association with the park. Like many people from the Adelaide Plains, and, I suppose, in my youth the days when Elizabeth and Salisbury were developing, the number of recreational facilities in that part of the world were pretty limited. The Para Wirra park had quite a deal of recreational facilities, and so it was a popular place for people to go for a range of events. My early recollections are of going up there for Sunday School picnics. I suppose it was at that stage that I first became intrigued with the neighbouring Humbug Scrub property.

Of course, some years ago I worked with the Friends of Para Wirra group in relation to the crown land at Humbug Scrub becoming part of Para Wirra. At that stage, there seemed to be no good reason why that should not happen, other than that there were some delays in that process.

We have had some delay in this process relating to where we have got to today, but I want to commend the minister for taking on board, I suppose, the questions and advocacy I have placed in this house and also the goodwill and great integrity of the people of the Friends of Para Wirra, who at no stage have done anything other than seek to get, I think, the classification that that park in its current state deserves. It is in that current state because these good people have worked tirelessly—I should not put it in the past tense—and they continue to work tirelessly to make that significant parcel of land as much an example of what that part of the northern Mount Lofty Ranges looked like before European settlement.

I know the Natural Resources Committee of the parliament visited the park two or three years ago and had a look at some of the terrific work that has been done not only in the restoration of native grasses and other flora and fauna, but also at the tireless work done to actually eradicate many of the pest plants that are throughout that area, or have been throughout that area, particularly in those areas that have been used at different times for farming or for domestic purposes.

The classification that will follow the passing of this motion will well fit the current nature of the park. That is very much due to the terrific work by the Friends of Para Wirra, and I know they give great credit also to the staff members of DEWNR. I suppose over many years the name of the department for which those national parks rangers work has changed, but I know the volunteers are very grateful for their consideration and work in relation to the park.

I reiterate my delight that we finally have got to this stage. It is probably a couple of years after most of us would have hoped it would happen, but it is a great thing and I am very happy to support the motion.

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL (15:37): The Greens are also pleased to support this motion and we add our congratulations to the Friends of Para Wirra Recreation Park for their advocacy in seeking and now obtaining an upgrade of the park. As part of my research into this issue, I asked the parliamentary library to look at the 1972 act and to see whether they could work out from Hansard why Para Wirra was given special mention in the act as a place that was not to be messed with, unless both houses of parliament agreed. Whilst Hansard is quite thin on that particular issue, it seems that, from the earliest of days, this park, along with Belair, were two that were seen to be particularly important and needed to be protected, so they were given extra protections.

Para Wirra is the only one in the act now because Belair of course, as members might remember, was a recreation park and on the centenary of parks, the date of which escapes me (but I was there—it was in the 1990s), the park was abolished and reproclaimed a national park, and that was in honour of the fact that it was in fact the centenary of parks in South Australia, and Belair was the first park in South Australia.

So, the process the government needs to go through, at first blush, looks a little sinister, when the motion before us is simply to abolish the Para Wirra Recreation Park. If we go to the minister's media release from November last year, he makes it clear that his intention is to upgrade the status of the park and to reproclaim it as a conservation park.

I hope members will not suspect my natural cynicism in these matters. Having worked in the conservation sector for very many years and being an environmental lawyer by training, I became aware of the fact that once the park has been abolished as a recreation park, it will be open to the government, on reproclaiming it to be a conservation park, to also use section 43 of the National Parks and Wildlife Act and to use what is known as the joint proclamation provisions to declare the park open for mining.

I raised this matter with the minister as a courtesy, and he has put on the record of Hansard that the government is not going to do that (I never suspected that they would) but simply out of an abundance of caution—which is also born out of the fact that many of these old historic mine sites (and there are historic mine sites up in the northern part, as I understand it, of Para Wirra) have come to the attention of mining companies and they are looking to reagitate those mining tenements.

The Bird-in-Hand mine is one example. The people of Macclesfield became quite worried, when they saw great tracts of farmland around their town under mineral exploration licences, to discover that the companies behind those licences were simply going to look back through the old data, look at old mines and see if they were worth redeveloping.

I took that knowledge of the act and my knowledge of environmental law and went to the Friends of Para Wirra web page and, conveniently, Patsy Johnson, the president, has her home phone number on the web page, so I rang up and they basically had no suspicions and I had no reason to suspect anything. Nevertheless, out of an abundance of caution, I did ask the minister to put on the record the fact that it is going to be reproclaimed as a conservation park with no mining to be seen.

On that note, again, I add my congratulations to the Friends for their past work and their ongoing work. I congratulate the government on upgrading the status of this important park, and I look forward to this part of our conservation estate remaining in good hands and in good condition for the times ahead.

Motion carried.