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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-10-20 Daily Xml
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SELECT COMMITTEE ON MARINE PARKS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:50): There are a couple of things I would like to talk about today. A few weeks ago, the Legislative Council Select Committee on Marine Parks in South Australia met in my electorate. They met first at Wirrina, and on the second day they met at Kingscote. What really worries me about this is the message that consistently came through both hearings. I was unable to attend the first one, but the second hearing I sat through most of the day, apart from during the evidence of one fellow who wanted to speak in camera. The message is still coming through that this thing is not being done properly.

I am concerned about it. I do not know what is going to happen in the ministerial reshuffle. I am hopeful that minister O'Brien will stay in his position and look after the interests of fishermen in South Australia because I am damn sure those people in the department of environment will not. I think it is ludicrous where this debate has gone. I think further hearings are planned for next week on Eyre Peninsula, which I know the member for Flinders will be attending. I will just about bet London to a brick that they will get the same message over there that we have heard in the hearings already.

The other point is that there has been some attention given to a rally that is planned at Victor Harbor on Sunday week, being organised by the FLAG group. Members may recall that earlier in the year there was a public meeting held at Strathalbyn. The minister, to his credit, attended and took questions, and we respect him for that; he did a good job, in the circumstances. However, this thing has not gone away.

Local farmers on Fleurieu Peninsula are still uptight and furious about what they see as too much power. The headline in The Stock Journal today says, 'Too much power: farmers to rally against heavy-handed NRM board.' Sooner or later in this state, something has to happen to neutralise these NRM boards and where they are going and the crazy things they are putting in place. I know the Natural Resources Committee and the Environment, Resources and Development Committee have heard from people on these matters, and they are not going to go away.

We have a collection of Independents who will be speaking—I think Senator Xenophon and the Hon. John Darley, from another place—and I know the Hon. Michelle Lensink is speaking and I am not sure about the Hon. Robert Brokenshire (however, he may be as well), and there could be others. It is fine to have rallies and it gives everybody a warm inner glow, but what is happening on the ground is that people in the farming community are fed up with being bulldozed and pushed around by heavy-handed bureaucrats who are getting paid large amounts of money and pushing the food producers of this nation into a situation where they are almost rebellious. It worries me where it is going. It really worries me.

I will be going. I do not know how many people they will get there. I see photos of my constituents in The Stock Journal today. They are terribly worried and concerned, and these are very solid South Australian citizens who go back generations. What will happen, once again? I do not know where the minister is going, whether he is staying with this department, or what is going on—that is way out of my control—but this has to stop.

The minister, bless his soul, came down to the Fleurieu some weeks ago and we had a good day out at Parawa and also behind Victor Harbor and at Mount Compass. The message is pretty consistent there. Not everybody disagrees with some aspects of what the NRM wants to do in the Eastern Fleurieu or the Western Fleurieu (Adelaide Hills), but there is still a great deal of concern about it. What I say to the house is that Senator Xenophon and a few others can go down there and say what they like and then skedaddle off to wherever they are going, but they will not change anything. We might get a few amendments to the bill or the minister might pull the bill.

I will tell the people of South Australia what is needed: they have to get rid of this government. If you want a change in policy you have to get rid of the government. The government is absolutely on the nose in this state. It might change short term, I do not know—who knows where we are going. We might have to wait 2½ years or 2¼ years or whatever is left to the next election, but the reality is that these people can run around but they cannot change things, because the government is formed, as we all know, in the lower house of this building and we have to change the government if we are going to fix it up.

It will go on and on, festering and festering. Unless the minister of the day gets on top of these departments and these NRM boards and pulls them into gear—

Time expired.

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