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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-09-24 Daily Xml
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National Parks

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (14:56): My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. Can the minister please update the house on how the Marshall Liberal government's investment in national parks will benefit regional communities and local economies?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (14:56): I thank the member for Finniss for his question. He has a great affinity for the outdoors and for the parks that form the part of the state that he represents down on Fleurieu Peninsula, and he understands how important our parks system is to attracting people to visit South Australia.

As a consequence, he understands how important it is for us to continually invest in our parks system in order to ensure not only that conservation outcomes are continually maintained but also that the amenity of our parks—particularly our parks which have a particularly high visitation—is upheld, that we show a sense of pride through investing in those parks and that, as a consequence, visitation continues to grow and return visitation will occur.

We know that our parks system here in South Australia has the opportunity to really turbocharge our nature-based tourism economy and our visitor economy, because we've got incredible assets, natural assets, whether it be our coasts, whether it be the outback, whether it be our wilderness areas or some of the areas represented by the member for Finniss around the south coast of the Fleurieu.

Those areas draw people to them, people fall in love with them and they want to see them protected, but they want that visitor experience to be a high-quality experience as well. That is why the Marshall Liberal government in the most recent budget, the 2019-20 budget, has substantially increased its investment in the amenity and the conservation elements within our parks system. We know that 21 per cent of our state is locked up within our parks system. That is a great opportunity to have so much of our state encapsulated in our protected areas system and the conservation elements and the amenity come together to create something really worthy within our visitor economy.

In the last budget, we pledged more than $11 million towards investment in our national parks for the creation of the Great Southern Ocean Walk between Cape Jervis and Victor Harbor, which the member for Finniss knows well. Also, there was further funding towards the creation of Glenthorne National Park but also, importantly, $3.3 million towards conservation and amenity upgrades in parks all across the state.

This funding might not go to particularly sexy stuff, but signage, pathways, toilet blocks, boardwalks, access points—things like that—create the visitor experience to make sure that our national parks continue to be accessible to everyone in our community, including those with physical disabilities, and we recognise the need to continually look for opportunities for more accessible destinations within our parks system.

More activity in our parks system will lead to more employment in the visitor economy, also in the outdoor trades, which are helping us invest in the amenity of our parks. Our parks system means an incredible amount to South Australians. It also means a lot to the Marshall Liberal government, and we will continue to invest in the opportunities that those natural assets bring to our state.

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