Para Wirra Conservation Park

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:26): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation a question about Para Wirra Conservation Park.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: In recent times, DEWNR officers have outlined to the Friends of Para Wirra a proposal to allow camping and camp fires in the Para Wirra Conservation Park. My questions to the minister are:

1. Which other conservation parks permit camp fires and, if there are none, why would you start with Para Wirra?

2. If the firewood must be obtained from outside the park, how will this be policed?

3. Has there been any consultation with the local and state CFS about the multiple camp fire sites planned to be initiated this year, particularly regarding restrictions in the non-fire ban season?

4. What plan is in place to monitor the timing of the lighting of fires, ensuring safety restrictions are met, etc., particularly given the massive slashing in ranger numbers throughout the Mount Lofty Ranges by this government?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:27): The honourable member was going so well up until a point and then she descended into absurdity, which is her wont. I thank the member nonetheless for her most important question about the Para Wirra Conservation Park and how we, as a government, are trying to increase the public utility of our parks, trying to get more people into our parks, particularly the peri-urban parks around the city, and investing roughly $10 million as a result of our promise at the last election to do so.

Upgrading our parks, including signage and camp sites—which I went into some detail about in this place a week or so ago, in terms of the response we had from the community to our simple ideas to make it easier for people to get into the parks for short stays, short periods of time, ideas that probably would not have occurred to us without actually asking people what they wanted. So, the feedback, whilst most of it was predictable in terms of upgraded facilities, the one bit of feedback I think I talked about in the council previously was that people wanted to be able to go camping but in parks that are close to the city, not so much parks where they have to drive for hours and hours to get to.

Para Wirra, of course, is one of those parks, as is Onkaparinga, Belair, Anstey Hill and Cobbler Creek, many of which are receiving upgrades as we speak. I think the Nature Play playground at Morialta is due for completion shortly. That is another astonishing investment by this government in utility.

In terms of camp fires in Para Wirra, or more generally, I will have to seek some information for the honourable member and bring it back to the specifics of the question. However, in relation to this erroneous position the member tries to fly around every now and then about a reduction in ranger numbers—

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: It's true, absolutely true.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: It is not true at all.

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: You have even admitted it.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: It is not true and the honourable member knows that it is not true. We have many staff now working in specialist services. We actually now create career pathways up through the agency for staff working on parks. They are not necessarily called rangers. They are called 'fire officers' and they are called 'specialist operators'. They are called rangers that work with Indigenous communities and those who work for our joint boards that we run to look after our more distant parks.

These are people who are working on our parks. Under the bad old days under the Liberals, they were cutting funding for our national parks after every budget. It is this government that is reinvesting in our national parks, reinvesting in our facilities that people have told us they want put into those parks. We are seeing a big upsurge in visitation.

I think I said in this place before, after the building of the park up at Cobbler Creek, I was advised that we had roughly 4,000 people visit the park per month. After the investment in the new facilities and new infrastructure around the playground and the BMX pump tracks, that is up to around 14,000. People are voting with their feet. They like what they are seeing from this government's investment in parks, and we will continue to do so.