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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-07-10 Daily Xml
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MARINE PARKS

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (15:31): With all due respect to the member for Taylor, I think the hardest act to follow here is from the member for Schubert today. Thank you, Ivan, for your time with me and all the others here. I wish you well.

Mr Venning: By the time I leave here, I'll be an expert.

Mr TRELOAR: That's right; in the next 20 months. I am sure you will enjoy it.

Mr Sibbons: You can join him.

Mr TRELOAR: He hasn't gone yet.

The Hon. S.W. Key: You don't have to stand again.

Mr TRELOAR: No, that's right. I want to use my time today to finish my contribution going back a couple of weeks and comments I made on the budget because my time was cut short at that time. I would like to highlight some of the cuts the government have made in regard to agriculture and PIRSA in particular. From the budget we are seeing that 98 jobs have been cut from PIRSA. This is in addition to 400 jobs that have already been slashed. Budget cuts in total are $24 million from agriculture.

I come from an agricultural background; I know how vitally important this sector is to the state's economy and how important it is to keep services up to an industry such as this and also investment into research and development. For 150 years South Australia has been at the forefront, not only of Australia's agricultural development but the world's. Many of the technological advances have been made here in South Australia through considered research and development and extension of that work.

It is a pity to see this government walking away from it. I think we run the risk of becoming an agricultural backwater rather than the leader that we should be and have been for almost 150 years. So, $24 million has been cut; fees, fines and penalties are increasing by $1 million; the total operating expenditure has been reduced in PIRSA by $50 million. The cost of compliance is one that I hear about constantly from constituents—the cost and compliance from agriculture and fisheries and seafood. I think this government is working on a business model where they introduce a service, then after a short number of years announce that they can no longer afford to provide this service for free and so they begin to charge for it. In many cases, it was a service that was not requested or required in the first instance.

Also, I will touch on the marine park process once again, because obviously there are budgetary impacts from marine parks. Unfortunately, the government has been looking for ways to cut the amount of compensation to be paid to commercial fishers that will be displaced by the proposed marine park sanctuary zones. It has come to light that the minister has requested the amount of compensation be reduced from $26 million to something like $15 million to $20 million a year, which really is an insult to the commercial fishing industry.

The saga continues. The government has released a single map that has been uploaded onto the government's website which indicates where the sanctuary zones are likely to be, but unfortunately the government still has not managed to release a regional impact statement. For so long we have been asking for this.

Mr Griffiths: August, apparently.

Mr TRELOAR: August, apparently. We will wait with bated breath. The member for Goyder has suggested that it is due in August. It cannot come too soon for all of those regional communities and the fishers themselves. Now, of course, we have got to a point where the Eyre Peninsula Local Government Association has expressed its total lack of confidence in the government and the department with respect to the consultation process.

Just to finish off my few minutes today in this grievance debate, I wish to put on the record my disappointment that the application to the federal government for funding for the fish unloading facility at Thevenard was not successful. It was in this very place that the state government reiterated its support of $1.5 million for the fish unloading facility but, of course, that was always going to be contingent upon federal funding.

Despite an extraordinary amount of lobbying at a local council level and to the federal government on the part of the RDA—and incidentally, the RDA on Eyre Peninsula has highlighted this particular project as the number one priority for the whole region, the number one infrastructure project for the jobs it will bring and the service it will provide once again to that fishing industry—unfortunately, it has not been successful. I would express to the federal government and also the state government my disappointment that it was not successful and assure people that we will continue to lobby for that project.

The SPEAKER: Thank you, and with the departure of the member for Schubert, I think probably we achieved a first today—I think it is the first time the Speaker has ever been kissed while in the chair, as a farewell. The member for Ashford.

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