Sand Dredging

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:02): Supplementary: how long will the minister be the minister responsible for this issue?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:03): As I have outlined to the chamber before, the minister responsible for issues of sand management on the beaches is the member for Port Adelaide, the Minister for the Environment, the Hon. Susan Close, our Deputy Premier. She owns property that is very near the northern beach area and has declared a conflict of interest, and I was appointed the minister responsible for this.

Once the dredging has occurred, it may well be that future decisions will lay with the minister. As I have outlined in statements I have made publicly, the advice we have so far is that all the science points to that this ought to work and provide the ongoing replenishment of sand from those northern beaches down to West Beach, but we want to make sure the real testing confirms what the science says.