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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-03-06 Daily Xml
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MARINE PROTECTED AREAS

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:20): Reluctant though I may be to return to the subject yet again of marine parks and marine protected areas, I am forced to because of the ongoing nonsense that is happening with the formation of the plan for the Encounter marine protected area. I am getting rather tired, and I know that constituents of mine are pretty weary, of being treated with disdain and contempt by the architects of this plan. I am also fed up to the back teeth with reading letters in the local papers in my electorate—namely, TheVictor Harbor Times and The Islander—where officers of the department, particularly the principal officer (Mr Chris Thomas), write long-winded and detailed pieces which criticise my local communities for even daring to suggest that they are not being consulted. The fact is they are not being consulted. This is taking place in a clandestine manner. I am sick of it, as is the community.

I have stakeholders from the professional fishing industry coming to me saying that they are not being consulted, whether that be industries regarding rock lobsters, netting, scale fishery or abalone, it does not matter because they are not being consulted. Instead, they are being told. They are having this thing rammed down their throat. The departmental officers will not accept any sort of criticism whatsoever. According to them, they are right and everyone else is wrong. Apparently, my communities and the fishing industry do not know what they are talking about. I am sick of it. I do not see any reason why the good people of South Australia should have this thing rammed into them. They have been told they will get it whether or not they like it. They are having the Queensland experience (because the other one failed that dismally) that Mr Thomas brought with him presented as the answer to all South Australia's problems. This is only the start in the Encounter area. Wait until we get out into the other 18 areas. It is going to be a disaster for South Australia.

You can get it right. Never have I questioned the integrity of the idea of marine parks—I have no issue with that whatsoever. I think it is a good idea; however, we are not being told about the outer zones. We will be told about those later on and then they will work on the inner zones. No-one has been told anything. How on earth can you put something like this in place without talking to those people who make a living from the sea? They care for the sea and know what the sea is about. They know the area and the waters, what the bottom is and what fish are there. They are not being asked. It is not right. It is absolute stupidity. It is way past time that the minister for the environment pulled this mob in and told them to start getting out there and talking properly to the good people of my electorate, and more widely the people of South Australia. It is time that she set an agenda which was actually going to be realistic which is not just all spin, nonsense and letters put on paper by government officers saying that the local people do not know what is going on. It is a lot of hogwash. It is absolute rubbish.

I will continue to stand in here and put forward the views of my constituency and the fishing industry which is so valuable to South Australia. Even last week we had a function down at Port Adelaide for the Wildcats fishery people. The minister (Hon. Rory McEwen) was there. I had fishermen coming up to me asking what on earth is going on. Mr Thomas and one of his colleagues were standing there like a shag on a rock. They were not getting out there and talking to people; they just stood there. Get out there, listen to people. If they want these committees to be half useful—and, in this case, I am referring to the Encounter Marine Park—start talking to people. Don't have the meetings in a closed shop. Start listening to the community and the recreational fishermen, the people who know the sea. Start listening to the professional fishermen. If we can get this thing done properly we will get it right but, if it keeps on going like this, I can predict a wholesale disaster.

A coastal waters study has been brought out, yet we have no marine park planned for Adelaide. Here is the greatest area of degraded seawater off the coast of the metropolitan area, and they are not having a marine park. How ridiculous is that: thousands of hectares of seagrass gone and no marine park plan! Do not tell me that is common sense. Around the rest of the state they will have them jammed down their throats, and they will be told what to do. A professional outfit will have to buy a licence to film on the sea. How stupid is that! It is bureaucracy gone mad, and I urge the government to fix it.

Time expired.

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