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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-05-01 Daily Xml
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MARINE PARKS

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:36): It was with some degree of amazement that I heard the Premier this afternoon talk about marine parks and what a wonderful job they have done in fixing the sanctuary zones. I think it should have been rephrased 'death by a thousand cuts for the fishing industry', particularly in my area, and I know that the member for Flinders feels likewise.

The announcement on Friday by the Premier can only be seen as being told to do once again as was suggested by the SDA. For a start, we cannot even read the maps that they have put out. They are maps that are hard to define, and you really cannot tell where the areas are. People in my electorate have looked at them and cannot define the areas. It is just ridiculous what they have done. They have not listened to what the vast majority of LAG groups said, though they claim to have.

At the meeting in Adelaide a couple of weeks ago, apparently they were told that they were not allowed to come out and say anything; they were taken into confidence. However, the professional fishing industry is far from happy; it is far from happy. I can see that within a few years in South Australia we will all be eating imported frozen fish from Asia. That is what is going to happen. It is totally ludicrous. No regional impact statements have been done—which they said they would do—economic, social, environmental impact statements.

I can tell you that in my electorate there is at least one, probably two and probably even more, fisherman who are going to have to leave the area. They are out of a job, or they are going to be out of a job. Most ridiculously, areas that should have been in there have been taken out. For example, an area in Backstairs Passage around some sponge beds and corals in our temperate waters has been taken out to a large extent, while Shoal Bay, just north of Kingscote, which is a mud flat with declining seagrass, has been put in there. It is just ridiculous what they have done. They have lost the plot.

It is easy for the Premier to stand up and say what a wonderful job he has done, but all he has done is bowed to his electoral base to make sure he has their vote in 2014. He could not give a tinker's damn about what happens in regional areas, and I am sure the member for Flinders will raise the Ceduna area. It is just crazy what is happening.

Let's return once again to what these marine parks were designed to do. They are for habitat protection. This outcome that he announced on Friday is not going to save one single, solitary fish. Not one! Not one wretched hooded plover. Not one! They are not going to be saved. It is not going to save any of that. It was never about fishing. It is about the habitat protection, and he just does not seem to understand what it is about. As far as giving the minister for the environment a great big pat on the back, you would have to shake your head at that. He has been done over big time, as has the CEO of the environment department, and as has Chris Thomas. They have made them look damn fools, quite frankly.

The Premier has come out and made this wonderful announcement about how he has fixed up the sanctuary zones. I can tell you he has not fixed it up. When you start eating rock lobster from Western Australia, South Africa or somewhere else because large areas of rock lobster habitat are going to be ruled out in these sanctuary zones, and when you are paying extra money, do not come and talk to me about it, particularly if you are in the current government, because you have been told and told and told.

With due respect to the former minister for primary industries, the Hon. Michael O'Brien, he at least had the guts to get hold of this thing and give it a good shake. If you think we are going to sit back in our regional areas and take this quietly, we are not—not in the first instance, the second instance or the third instance. It is not over by a long shot. What has happened is absolutely crazy. Though he has appeased some areas, there are plenty of other areas he has not appeased, and he has just made a damn fool of places that do not count for much in his electoral cycle.

I say that Premier Weatherill's announcement on Friday has been an outstanding failure. It is not the be-all and end-all, and when people wake up to what has taken place they are going to be crankier than ever. The fishing industry will be crankier than ever—they are already. This morning in The Advertiser there was an article by Justin Phillips from the rock lobster association.

These people are out there earning incomes for South Australia and Australia. They are providing fish for South Australia, Australia and the world and they are going to be taken out of business in many areas—it is crazy. It was never, ever about fishing—they just do not get it—it is about habitat protection. Pull all the sanctuary zones, have the marine parks—great idea! You haven't got it right, you didn't have it right before, you still haven't got it right and you're not going to get it right in the future. All you are doing is feeding the votes that come from the great big green monster for no useful purpose.

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