Motions

Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. J.M.A. Lensink:

That this council requests His Excellency the Governor to make a proclamation under section 27(3) of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 excluding allotment 63 in approved Plan No. D93043, Out of Hundreds (Parachilna), from the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park.

(Continued from 13 November 2018.)

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (15:44): I rise very briefly to speak in support of this motion. As honourable members will be aware, I moved, I am advised, an identical motion on 6 July 2017, which was carried unanimously in this place and in the other place. As the Minister for Human Services outlined in moving this motion, the end of the Fifty-Third Parliament, ahead of the 2018 state election, meant that a new motion would be required for the land swap to go ahead.

In December of last year, I was briefed on this matter by the minister's office and departmental officer (that was the Minister for Environment, not the Minister for Human Services), and I am grateful to the minister for allowing that briefing to go ahead. They confirmed to me in that meeting that the motion is identical. However, they did also state that no correspondence with the landowner has occurred, indicating that the passage of the motion may still be a rocky one, and something we should be watching.

It is interesting to note in passing how this Liberal government is so interested in the environment that it has removed responsibility for pastoral land management from the environment agency and shifted it to primary industries and regional development. It is not enough for this government to direct the environment agency to become an economic agency and pretend that the government is committed to the environment. Perhaps they are taking a leaf out of Barnaby Joyce's playbook when he shifted responsibility for water and the River Murray away from the environment department and into the minister for the department for aquaculture, saying that he did not want the greenies to be in charge. I think that says quite a bit about this government's attitude to the environment. With those few words, I commend the motion.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:46): I thank the former minister for agreeing to this land parcel swap, which was commenced under his tenure. This motion is for the excision of land from the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, which is located between the townships of Hawker and Blinman, some 450 kilometres north of Adelaide. The national park is renowned for its natural and geological significance and is a major part of the South Australian identity.

The park is managed by the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park Co-management Board under the National Parks and Wildlife Act. The Willow Springs Station is a neighbouring pastoral property that abutts the south-eastern boundary of the national park. The Department for Environment and Water and the lessees of Willow Springs Station, a neighbouring pastoral property to Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, have reached a mutually beneficial agreement for the exchange of land.

Pursuant to section 27(4) of the National Parks and Wildlife Act of 1972, an alteration to the boundary of the national park, where land ceases to be included in the park, requires the resolution of both houses of parliament and a subsequent proclamation by the Governor. The agreement proposes that Willow Springs Station surrenders a parcel of land with high biodiversity and landscape values from their pastoral lease for addition to the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park. In return, a portion of land better suited to pastoral activities is proposed to be excised from the park for addition to the Willow Springs Station pastoral lease. The land proposed for addition to the national park contains significant intact biodiversity and landscape values, while the land for excision from the national park contains land of low conservation value better suited to pastoral activities.

The necessary resolutions were passed by both houses of the previous parliament. However, the necessary proclamation to alter the boundary was not able to be progressed for approval of His Excellency the Governor in Executive Council prior to prorogation and then dissolution of the previous parliament. That has caused the previous resolutions to lapse, necessitating new resolutions.

Excision of allotment 63 is necessary to trigger action on the part of the lessee to complete a partial surrender of the pastoral lease. Once these two actions have occurred, finalisation of the land exchange will then be possible, first through the addition of the excised allotment to the Willow Springs pastoral lease, and through the addition of the surrendered pastoral lease into the park. I commend the motion to the council.

Motion carried.