Motions

Port Gawler Conservation Park

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (11:03): I move:

That this council requests His Excellency the Governor to make a proclamation under section 29(3) of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 abolishing the Port Gawler Conservation Park.

The purpose of this motion is pretty straightforward: it is to allow for the area to be added to the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park—Winaityinaityi Pangkara, under section 29(3)(a) of the National Parks and Wildlife Act.

The Port Gawler Conservation Park was constituted in 1971, I am advised, and protects 418 hectares of mangroves, samphire and coastal dune systems and the species, of course, that that environment supports. The Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary is an internationally significant area for local and migratory shorebirds, traversing approximately 60 kilometres of coastline on the eastern shores of Gulf St Vincent, which has been formally recognised with a Certificate of Participation in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, a network of international entities committed to the preservation of migratory bird species.

The Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park—Winaityinaityi Pangkara has been created as a core protected area within the bird sanctuary. The Port Gawler Conservation Park rests adjacent to and is central within other land parcels under consideration for addition to the new national park.

The proposed change in status of the land is consistent with the characteristics and values of the land and will contribute to the recognition of this area as an important part of the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary. Both the bird sanctuary and the new national park have received broad support across the community, local government and the native title claimant group, reviving hope and positive aspirations for the people of northern Adelaide.

The existing Port Gawler Conservation Park does not permit any mining access. The land will be subject to that same restriction on being added to the national park. Once the Port Gawler Conservation Park has been abolished, it can be reconstituted by proclamation as an addition to the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park—Winaityinaityi Pangkara pursuant to section 28(1) of the act. The Governor will proclaim, I hope, the abolition of the Port Gawler Conservation Park, and the proclamation of the land as an addition to the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park—Winaityinaityi Pangkara, on the same day. I commend the motion to the council.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins.