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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-04-30 Daily Xml
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Nuyts Archipelago

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (15:00): My question is to the Minister for Tourism. When was the minister advised that the government intended to limit tourism access to Nuyts Archipelago, and has she sought advice to understand the impact of the decision on tourism operators? Sir, with your leave and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: The government is currently consulting on the draft management plan for the Nuyts Archipelago and Investigator Group Wilderness Protection Areas, which plans to restrict tourism access to daylight hours. On 25 April 2024, The Advertiser reported that the operator of EP Cruises has said that this would, and I quote, 'crush the Nuyts Archipelago expeditions'. The operator went on to say, and I quote again, 'We don't have the ability to take daytime tours out there, it's too far off shore.'

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, Minister for Workforce and Population Strategy) (15:01): I am happy to respond to this question. It is true—and it's interesting that, again, the journal of record is being used to inspire the questions being asked, rather than direct contact with people who are affected.

The challenge for the Nuyts Archipelago is that it is a wilderness area, which means that biodiversity comes to the top of the list of considerations for the way in which it needs to be managed. There has been a year-by-year arrangement for EP Cruises to be able to not only do daytime tours but also to stay overnight. That has been frustrating for the manager because the year-by-year has meant that they have known that there hasn't been certainty into the future, but the reason for that has been that there was always going to come a point when a draft management plan would be prepared that would need to address the impact of having people staying overnight on the islands.

The draft management plan has now been put out that suggests that overnight stays are not appropriate and not compatible with the biodiversity principles of those islands. That is out for public consultation. We will hear back, not only from the operator but also from other people involved in wishing to see the protection of these islands which are, in many ways, refuges for biodiversity and therefore have even greater importance than some of our parks on the mainland. We will make a determination once we have received all of that public feedback.

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