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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-11-09 Daily Xml
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KANGAROO ISLAND SURFING COMPETITION

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:18): Can I spend a few moments congratulating Surfing SA and the other organisers of the music and pro-surf festival on Kangaroo Island? It was spectacularly successful over the weekend. I have not heard the final figures but I know there were 2,500 tickets sold—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

Mr PENGILLY: No.

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr PENGILLY: If you just all shut up and let me finish, I will tell you all about it, on both sides. It was spectacularly successful. I visited the area on Sunday. I went down there and I never spoke to one person who had not had a fabulous weekend.

Ms Chapman: Did you see any hooded plovers?

Mr PENGILLY: No hooded plovers, no. I didn't speak to them. However, members of my own family came over. My wife went down for a couple of nights and baby-sat, and it was just a wonderful occasion. The planning was spectacularly well done, the security was paramount and the police did a great job. Local organisations such as football clubs and service clubs, etc., made a lot of money out of it.

There were only a couple of minor incidents, I understand, where a couple of people were thrown out for overimbibing. I think something else happened Saturday night but it was nothing of any great consequence. It was great.

One little oddity did occur late on Thursday night. I went down to catch a ferry to the island and I noticed a number of young people in blue T-shirts and shorts; and it was minus 15°, I might add. When I came out from checking in they accosted me. They were the Youth Coalition for Action on Climate Change. They wanted me to sign a petition. I said, 'No I won't be.' They said, 'Why not?' I said, 'Because I think it's nonsense.'

Ms Chapman: Family First.

Mr PENGILLY: They were a bit like Family First, yes—the T-shirts that the Labor Party printed, yes. That's what I mean. Anyway, I went on to explain to them that I had grave doubts about any climate change and that they should come back in 20 years and tell me again when they had a couple of kids, a mortgage and a few other things and they were trying to make money—they might have changed their views.

Then I ran across another local in the car park who had been accosted by another lot. They were obviously down there on a mission, and I do not know how successful they were. However, the net result was to the island economy. It is the first time anything of this nature has been staged. It was tremendously successful. I hope it goes on for years and years. The music was all good, they tell me—

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: Where were the naysayers?

Mr PENGILLY: Why don't you shut up, Atko?

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: I'm just helping you.

The SPEAKER: Member for Croydon, you will behave.

Mr PENGILLY: Thank you. I do hope it goes on. The government and minister Rau (when he was the minister for tourism) promoted it. I supported that; I continue to support it. It is something that was badly needed on the island in South Australia.

Just let me turn to a statement that the Attorney-General gave yesterday about the formation of the Kangaroo Island Futures Authority. I am far from impressed with where that is going. I am not seeking to make any comment on the people who are on it, but I think that the government has missed some great opportunities to put some people on there who really could have kicked things along.

What really concerns me is that no-one from the progressive farming section of the island is on there. We have some very progressive young farmers on the island. We have former Nuffield scholars and others who are extremely progressive in their outlook and who have a great future and quite a few young people. It is disappointing that someone from that sector was not put on. I think that equally a couple of others could have gone on there who would have made the operation useful.

I am not sure where it is going to go, because it really does not have any money to spend. They can sit around and write more reports and do studies; however, what comes out of it remains to be seen. I would be very doubtful whether the Liberal Party in government would maintain it, quite frankly; it all depends on what support comes over the next few years.

If the government, in the little bit of time it has left before the next election, chooses to put money into the island over and above what it has already announced when it was over there earlier on (a lot of which was in forward estimates, anyway), I will be happy. I do think that, if you are going to dream up these things and put them into place, a bit more guts need to be put into the organisation and a bit more thought.

Time expired.

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