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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-11-01 Daily Xml
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NULLARBOR NATIONAL PARK

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton—Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (15:43): I move:

That this house requests His Excellency the Governor to make a proclamation under section 28(2) of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 excluding section 496, Out of Hundreds (Nullarbor) from the Nullarbor National Park.

Whilst some things are being sorted out, I would like to get agreement from the opposition. I thought we had some agreement. The purpose of the motion is to excise this parcel and infrastructure located on the land from the Nullarbor National Park. Under section 28(3) of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 an alteration to the boundaries of a national park requires a resolution of both houses of parliament and a subsequent proclamation by the Governor.

The Nullarbor National Park is located in the far west of South Australia, stretching approximately 300 kilometres east from the Western Australian border. Section 496 is located on the extreme eastern boundary of the Nullarbor National Park, and at 589 hectares is 1 per cent of the national park's total area of 578,000 hectares.

This section contains an airstrip and dump which is currently licensed under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 to support the operations of the adjoining Nullarbor Roadhouse, which is located on freehold land. Section 496 also contains large areas of borrowed pits operated by the Commissioner of Highways for the maintenance of roads in the area, in particular the adjoining Eyre Highway.

Section 496 also does not contain any biodiversity values that are not replicated elsewhere in the vast expanse of the Nullarbor National Park and the adjoining Nullarbor Regional Reserve, which together can serve 2.86 million hectares of land. These two reserves are visually arresting as the famous treeless plain that is the Nullarbor; Their vegetation is predominantly a low chenopod understorey of bluebush, saltbush and other species, and I can confirm that it is a fantastic area.

In particular, the reserves are part of the world's largest arid karst region that stretches from South Australia into Western Australia. They make a significant contribution to conservation in this state as core protected areas in the East Meets West NatureLinks corridor, a biological corridor connecting extensive intact areas from the Upper Eyre Peninsula to the Western Australian border.

This area proposed to be abolished from the national park will be resumed as unalienated crown land under the Crown Land Management Act 2009, a more appropriate tenure regime for the uses of the land. The land will continue to be managed by the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources under the provisions of the Crown Land Management Act 2009. The owners of the Nullarbor Roadhouse will be issued a licence under that act allowing them to continue to use the infrastructure on section 496 under the same terms and conditions that they currently enjoy.

As members would be aware, the government is proposing to proclaim the 900,000 hectare Nullabor Wilderness Protection Area under the Wilderness Protection Act 1992. This followed public consultation on the proposal by our Premier (Hon. Jay Weatherill MP) during which 19 submissions provided supported for the proposal. This will be the largest proclaimed wilderness area in Australia, and I look forward to the Governor proclaiming the area in the near future following parliament's consideration of the Wilderness Protection (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill 2012, which contains within it some amendments that are a necessary precursor to the proclamation.

I thank opposition members very much for the support they have indicated for this motion to date. I thank them for their involvement and, of course, the involvement and the subsequent bills that will be put here. I also acknowledge the Wilderness Advisory Committee, which provides advice to the government under the Wilderness Protection Act, the Far West Coast native title claimants and the directors of the Nullarbor Roadhouse. I thank them for their consideration and support for this motion.

In short, with the national park largely being replaced by the Wilderness Protection Area, the tenure of section 496 could not reasonably remain as a residual national park and its resumption as crown land will be both a tidy-up exercise and a more appropriate ongoing tenure for that land. I commend this motion to the house; and, again, I thank the opposition for its indication of support.

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:48): I indicate that the Liberal Party is not in a position to support this at the moment. We are still waiting on some consultation from the owners of the roadhouse. We do thank the minister's staff for their excellent briefing. We think that this is non-controversial and we think that it will be passed very quickly. As I said, we thank the minister for his indulgence, but we just need one last person to come back and confirm that. The minister's office has actually supplied all the contact details for that and we are still waiting on a reply.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.J. Snelling.

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