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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-02-05 Daily Xml
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National Parks

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (17:02): My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. Can the minister update the house on the impact the recent bushfires have had on the state's national parks and what the Marshall Liberal government is doing to assist with the recovery of the natural environment and wildlife?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (17:03): It is good to be able to update the house on the particular challenges that our natural environment faces following unprecedented fires that have occurred both in the Adelaide Hills and Kangaroo Island—but also in the South-East of the state—over the last few weeks.

We know that there have been very significant impacts on our natural environment, an environment already facing the threat of the change in climate and the particular resilience threats that come with it, and now of course we have the added challenge that that environment, that landscape, must be supported in order to recover following these unprecedented bushfires.

I have had the opportunity to visit the fireground in the Adelaide Hills and also on Kangaroo Island, the latter on four occasions over the last four to five weeks. On Friday, I was able to travel down into the west end of the island and see the very substantial damage that has occurred to parks, such as the Kelly Hill Conservation Park, the wilderness areas in the west end of the island, and of course the iconic Flinders Chase National Park. Around 97 per cent of that national park has been fire impacted and the recovery in that landscape is I think going to occur because the Australian bush does bounce back from these events, and we know that Flinders Chase bounced back from the very significant 2007 fires.

But our immediate concern, and our long-term concern obviously, is for the small and fragile and often fragmented populations of native animals which, because of human impacts over many years, have seen themselves reduced to these small populations. With the impact of fires knocking those populations so significantly, there is a great concern that those populations of particular species, both flora and fauna, may struggle to recover. So they are going to need the help of a range of different groups, from people working on the ground in the community to the work of NGOs and, of course, the application and work of the state, federal and local governments to help get these natural landscapes back on their feet and those populations of native wildlife back on their feet as well.

I think we have had a number of speeches today in response to the bushfire motion earlier this afternoon, which highlighted the human impact and the environmental impact as well. What all those speeches revealed was the immense generosity that has been shown by people. I have seen that time and time again from a whole range of NGOs, from individuals. I think of the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park, I think of Adelaide Koala Rescue, Minton Farm at Chandlers Hill in the Adelaide Hills, a range of koala rescue organisations, many different people coming together working alongside the government with local government, with local communities, to help our unique natural environment get back on its feet.

The journey will be substantial. It's going to be a long-term journey, but we are going to have to work together to ensure that the generosity, which has been shown in the short term, actually leads to long-term landscape recovery. It has been a great pleasure to be able to work alongside Nature Foundation SA, in a partnership with the National Parks and Wildlife Service, to establish the Wildlife Recovery Fund. That has already generated hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations and there is a hope that other pots of money, which have been raised as a result of particular campaigns, can coalesce around that one fund and lead to sustainable medium to long-term recovery actions for the landscape.

There is also a real movement amongst people who want to help animals in the shorter term as well. People have been providing plenty of donations, in particular towards koala rescue, and it has been really good to see that as well.

Time expired.

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