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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-07-11 Daily Xml
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MARINE PARKS

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (15:17): Thank you, Madam Speaker, and I appreciate your indulgence in allowing for arrangements to be made. Today I wish to speak about marine parks, if I may, and just put on the record some comments that have been coming through to me from my constituents who are very concerned about a couple of aspects of it: firstly, from a professional fisher's viewpoint and particularly around marine park 14.

There is a Mr Bart Butson, who is a sensible bloke, actually—a very sensible man. He is a professional fisher from Port Wakefield of at least second-generation. I know his son is also very keen to take over from him. He has had some discussions with me and is concerned that, with the sanctuary zone proposals for marine park 14, it really will mean the death of an industry that exists around the top of the gulf.

With the net fishers and the line fishers who operate out of there, we probably have something like 24 different professional fishers. Collectively, they employ something like 200 people. They have a turnover within the local community approaching $5 million or $6 million and they are very concerned that, with the draft sanctuary zones that are out there, their livelihood is going to be taken away from them.

They have had the opportunity to review some of the figures floating around out there about compensation payments that people are talking about. It is in the low $200,000s. For them, that does not provide them with any level of compensation that allows them to relocate or consider remaining in the industry. So, there are desperate people out there who are very concerned.

I know they have made approaches to minister Caica. I know he has indicated a willingness to talk, once the draft management plans are released, but I would urge him to ensure that that discussion does occur, because these people are reflective of many others who exist across regional South Australia who are concerned about the impact of the sanctuary zones.

I have also had approaches from people who are quite worried about the beach fishing aspect of it. I know that within the Goyder electorate something like 36 kilometres of 'no-beach fishing' is proposed, which is predominantly in mudflats on the Samphire Coast. I have had contact from quite a few people who are worried about that and who consider the Yorke Peninsula to be either their holiday destination of choice or their beach fishing destination of choice. Some of the spots identified as part of the sanctuary zones and where the beach fishing will be prevented are their preferred spots.

These people have been doing it for decades. They go there regularly. They have free camp sites there. They respect the environment. They take very little compared to what the full take is from the sea. They do not have the chance to relocate a lot and still get that regular feed of fish they are looking for. They are starting to contact us, and I know that other members have also had approaches about this. They just want to see fairness and equity in it. It is smaller amounts.

I acknowledge that the sanctuary zone proposals are in the range of 6 per cent of our marine waters, but it is an issue that will continue to crop up. The intention of the minister to release the management plans in August—and, indeed, the economic and social impact statements—is only going to open up another level of scrutiny that will just make the community rise. They are empowered by this. They know that their voice has to be a loud one. It is not just we as politicians who seek opportunity from it. We are here as the voice of the people who contact us.

Mr Pengilly interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr GRIFFITHS: The member for Finniss talks about it quite often. I have four marine parks—

The Hon. M.J. WRIGHT: Point of order, ma'am. I cannot hear the speaker because of the interjections on the other side.

The SPEAKER: Yes. The member for Finniss will behave or he will leave before he has an opportunity to do his grievance.

Mr GRIFFITHS: The member for Flinders has 10 marine parks. For us it is our bread and butter. It is the wish of the people within our electorates for us to continue to speak about it, so it is an issue that we will continually raise.

I want to finish on one point. I have had contact from a member of the Balgowan Progress Association—a lady who is used to putting her viewpoint forward. Her name is Helen Moyle, and she is very concerned about the fact that Mr Chris Thomas, who works—

Ms Thompson interjecting:

Mr GRIFFITHS: Yes. He is the project officer for this. He posted late last night, as I understand it, on a tweet site, I think it is, or a SA website, about the number of people who have made contacts and who have asked questions about the marine parks. He has developed a top ten of the 1,500 or 1,600 contacts. Supposedly he has identified how many contacts have come from the same person. In some cases the top 10 includes people who have made 300 or 400 contacts because that is what they are passionate about.

She just wonders what waste of resources has occurred here for him to make that information available seemingly to belittle these people in a public realm when all they are doing is trying to protect their communities. That is where there is a level of frustration, and Mr Thomas has to be held to account for his actions as we are in here. It is this issue that Mrs Helen Moyle has asked me to raise in the chamber because she wants an answer. She does not feel it is right for this belittling to occur when a very serious issue has been raised in the community, and he has just taken it as an opportunity to attack these people personally.

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