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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-07-26 Daily Xml
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KANGAROO ISLAND DEVELOPMENT

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (16:13): Earlier today, the Premier made some comments about what happened with the government on Kangaroo Island over the last few days. Just let me remind the house that after 1993, when the Brown and then Olsen governments were in place, they spent tens of millions of dollars on Kangaroo Island. What they spent it on was things that were going to do the world of good for local residents. They spent it on such things as a desalination plant at Penneshaw to improve the water for the Penneshaw residents and tourism. They spent money on sealing the South Coast Road which improved no end the way of life of those people who live on the south coast and on the West End Highway and their ability to do business. They put in a filtration plant at Middle River. They did quite a bit of work on the hospital all for local residents.

What we have seen over the last few days with the announcements on the island is absolutely what Paddy shot at for the local residents of Kangaroo Island—absolutely sweet Fanny Adams. Nothing of what they have done will be of any benefit whatsoever. So, what we have seen is expenditure in areas, which I will come to in a minute, but they have missed the point. I say to the other side of the house that, if you want to get Kangaroo Island going, the key issue is to do something about the cost of getting across the water. That is the issue. The Water Gap project identified it; the government has pushed that to one side. Where that push has come from, I do not know. That talks about a federal subsidy on freight and a state subsidy on passengers and cars.

If you want to get double your visitor population, if you want to do something for the local people, if you want to do something for the economy that translates to farming, fishing and people's ability to get back and forward—and, of course, tourism—you do something about that. That is the simple answer to the question, but nobody seems to want to tackle it.

What they have actually done is they have announced funding in certain areas. The $8 million for the roads, I support—obviously, I would be a fool not to support it—but that will go into resealing some of the roads that were done under the Brown-Olsen government, and that is desperately needed. I point out that it is half what the Liberal Party promised in the lead-up to the last election.

The $5 million towards the development of a walking trail: that is in the government's own infrastructure, so when that comes in—and I do not mind it, I am quite happy with it. However, all it is going to do is aid and abet the ability of the national parks and wildlife service (DENR) to raise more income through their business enterprises in the parks. By the way, the whole lot burnt out in 2007, and they have done nothing about looking to the future, so it is going to be really good if someone is on a walking trail, it is 45 degrees and the bush goes up. They have not thought through that one very well; that worries me.

The $1.7 million for the Seal Bay boardwalk: that has already been put out to tender. It is on its way; it has started. They have reannounced it once again for their own business structures inside the parks for the government. That is what is happening there. The $1.3 million for SeaLink: the people of Kangaroo Island think that SeaLink is getting the whole lot done, but the $1.3 million is the result of five years of attending meetings by SeaLink to get a new terminal at Penneshaw. Only a couple of weeks ago the CEO of SeaLink expressed frustration to me that he keeps going to meetings and nothing happens, so I am pleased that something has finally happened, but I want to see it happen and I want to see it in writing because I do not trust you mob anyway. I do not trust you at all.

The fact of the matter is that $500,000 is talked about to put a solar power unit into the redeveloped airport. There is nothing there about putting money into the airport. The state government does not have any money. It would have to be federal government money, and I actually welcome anything to redevelop the airport. I welcome a longer runway, even though Tom Koutsantonis has not worked out that you cannot bring a 737 from Adelaide to Kingscote, as he told one local resident on Sunday night who thought he was off the planet. The reality is that we must not put at risk Regional Express Airlines. You must not put that at risk. That would be inherently dangerous.

There are many other things that I wish to say, but I will run out of time, but let me say that we do not want legislation to further restrict development on the island. It is nonsense. I do not believe this appellation model fits into Kangaroo Island. We have the NRM, the native veg act, the council's development plan—you want to stop everything, you do not want to get it going. You want to stop everything. What is wrong with you people? There is a fair way to go on this. It will be interesting to see what sort of format this development authority has (the board). I hope that it has a majority of local people on it because you do not seem to want to listen to the locals. You want to seem to listen to all of these shoddy backside bureaucrats from Adelaide.

Time expired.

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