Seal Bay Conservation Park

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (15:01): My question is to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation. Will the minister inform the chamber about his recent visit to the Seal Bay Conservation Park and the efforts that are being taken there to monitor Australian sea lion populations?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (15:01): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. Last week, I had the very great pleasure of visiting, once again, KI and spending some time at Seal Bay Conservation Park. I think the first time I was in Seal Bay was in 1974, it might have been just a little bit later, and I can say that the way in which the park is now operated has changed considerably since then.

Kangaroo Island is the jewel in the crown of what South Australia has to offer for domestic, state and overseas visitors. It is iconic for our state and the state government is committed to positioning KI as the state's premier nature-based tourism destination. With a landscape of great natural beauty, the island's national parks play a very important role in KI's tourism status, contributing 20 per cent of South Australia's nature-based tourism dollars, I am advised, to the state's economy.

The Department of Environment Water and Natural Resources is playing a very important role in helping to create South Australia as a nature-based tourism destination. With the government's nature-based tourism strategy, Nature like Nowhere Else, we are committed to recognising the state's natural assets as something that can create opportunities for growth and also employment.

We aim to create 1,000 new jobs through nature-based tourism by 2020, and inject $350 million into the state's economy annually. South Australia's tourism industry statistics are now at record levels. Our visitor economy has hit a record high of $5.95 billion this year, bringing us closer to achieving our target of $8 billion by 2020. Our state has also attracted record numbers of interstate and intrastate visitors, with domestic expenditure reaching $4.8 billion, I am advised, and international expenditure in South Australia is also at an all-time high of $954 million per annum.

The state government is committed to creating opportunities for our environment industry and our tourism industry, trying to have those opportunities realised in synergistic ways between the two different but mutually supportive industries, and nowhere else do we see leadership in balancing conservation with tourism more than at Seal Bay. With over 108,000 visitors last financial year and growing year-on-year, Seal Bay Conservation Park is an incredibly popular tourist attraction.

After being hunted to near extinction in the 19^th century, Seal Bay is one of the only places in the world where we can see the Australian sea lion up close. Seal Bay supports the only beach-accessible colony of Australian sea lions. With over 1,000 sea lions, the colony reflects about 5 per cent of the world's total, I am advised. Importantly, South Australia is home to approximately 85 per cent of the world's population of Australian sea lions.

I was lucky enough to see plenty of sea lions, including their pups, at the Seal Bay Conservation Park. I was joined on a beach walk by representatives from the Kangaroo Island tourism sector and key stakeholders from the local community. We were taken on the beach tour and heard about the latest research and conservation efforts that underpinned the conservation park. Seal Bay Conservation Park provides a crucial contribution to the protection of Australian sea lions whilst they are on land. These measures are further supported by the government's introduction of the Seal Bay sanctuary zone in the Southern Kangaroo Island Marine Park in 2012. Now, inshore feeding areas for mothers and pups are fully protected.

What is particularly unique about Seal Bay is how conservation and research go hand-in-hand. Seal Bay is the national centre for research and monitoring of the declining Australian sea lion and is a critical contributor to the survival of this species.

Research into the Australian sea lion is a vital component of the species' survival, and I was joined by researchers from the South Australian Research and Development Institute and the University of New South Wales, and also a professor from Kentucky, and learnt about the factors that have an impact on sea lions and strategies being undertaken at the Seal Bay Conservation Park to increase their protection. I witnessed a necropsy that was being done on site to explore how hookworm poses a threat to the survival of the Australian sea lion, as well as watching researchers collect microchip data from very live and very wary maternal seals, a program that has been running since 2002.

While Seal Bay is a great example of nature-based tourism, it is also critically important for conservation and research. Seal Bay is a great example of connecting people with nature and science. Areas like Seal Bay play an important role in supporting regional tourism and, in turn, contribute to the local economy as well as the delivery of targets under our nature-based tourism strategy. I look forward to learning more about the research and conservation efforts being undertaken at the Seal Bay Conservation Park into the future.

I am particularly looking forward to seeing how the popularity of places like Seal Bay Conservation Park on KI grows after the upcoming launch of the new Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail. The trail will provide an internationally competitive multiday walking experience along the south-west coast of Kangaroo Island. The state government has committed over $5 million for the creation of the trail, which is expected to deliver significant economic benefits to Kangaroo Island and of course to the state.

A report by KPMG estimates that post construction and with the anticipated private investment interest, total visitor expenditure relating to the trail could bring in $4.4 million by 2020 to the island. I am advised that the operation of the trail could support up to 27 ongoing jobs on KI and up to 50 across the state. I would like to take this opportunity to commend the work of the staff and researchers at the Seal Bay Conservation Park, and the Kangaroo Island community more broadly, for embracing and leading the way in nature-based tourism.

I just have to say, in relation to the Hon. Tammy Franks' question to the Leader of the Opposition, that she gave him a perfect opportunity in this place to stand up for South Australia, to stand up for Whyalla and to ask the federal government, on behalf of his constituents, to support the Arrium sale by allocating a grant to save the jobs in Whyalla. What would he do? He undertook to take the Hon. Tammy Franks' concern to the Liberal Party at the federal level, but not his own. He did not undertake to ask the federal government to help the workers in Whyalla.

It is up to the Labor Party in this state parliament and the Greens Party in this state parliament to do the work that the Hon. Mr Ridgway won't do. He is too busy trying to oust sitting members in safe Liberal seats. He is too busy trying to allocate Treasury portfolios to newcomers who have not even been preselected yet. I do not even know—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: This is another example of Liberal Party arrogance. They believe they own these seats.

The PRESIDENT: Point of order. The Hon. Mr Dawkins.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: Mr President, the Leader of the Government has defied your rulings throughout today's proceedings, and I ask that you make sure that he does not do it any further.

The PRESIDENT: The honourable leader has been directed to desist and allow the minister to complete his answer. Minister.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: This is just another example of Liberal Party arrogance. They believe they own these safe Liberal seats and it is in their gift to give them away. I tell them that there is a lesson coming for them, because these seats are owned by the electors of South Australia and they will have a lesson for them come the next election. They will teach you that the gift of these seats is not the Liberal Party's, it is not the Hon. Mr Ridgway's right-wing faction's, the Uglies or whatever they are called—the grand Pooh-Bahs—at their lodge meetings. They can't have secret lodge meetings to allocate these seats—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —wearing buffalo horn hats, and giving them out to their mates. These seats will be allocated by the people of South Australia.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Darley.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: What have you been drinking?

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Darley has the floor.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Darley has the floor.