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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-03-06 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

Kangaroo Island Koalas

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (14:07): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: This week we have all been shocked by the horrific images of koalas in blue gum plantations on Kangaroo Island being injured as a result of timber harvesting operations by the plantation managers. This is simply not acceptable.

The Department for Environment and Water has previously engaged with Kiland Limited and their plantation managers to discuss the process for felling their plantation estate. I am advised that plantation managers have adopted a protocol that involves having spotters locate koalas prior to felling and retaining trees holding a koala with the surrounding eight trees. I am also advised that this is the standard protocol used to manage koalas in plantations in the Green Triangle region that crosses south-western Victoria and the South-East of South Australia.

Concerns were first raised with the Department for Environment and Water regarding the implementation of its protocol back in 2021, and several comprehensive investigations were undertaken. However, no evidence of noncompliant activities could be found on those occasions. The appearance of this distressing footage would suggest that this evidence does now exist, and the department is pursuing access to the original footage to inform its investigations. Let me assure you that the government takes this matter incredibly seriously and, in response, is implementing the following five actions:

1. Department for Environment and Water investigators have reopened their investigations and are on the ground on Kangaroo Island at this very moment, seeking additional evidence. This will include meetings with members of the KI animal network and the vet who treated the injured koalas in the footage. The investigators will also be liaising closely with the RSPCA investigators who are also currently visiting the island.

2. In coming days I will be making a new regulation under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 that will increase my capacity to manage the impact of the felling of blue gum plantations on Kangaroo Island's koalas. Following that, I will be seeking to make an amendment to the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 that will enable me to make a new regulation that will require any activity that is likely to interfere with and harm a protected animal to only be undertaken when it is in accordance with a management plan approved by me as environment minister. This will include the ability for me to stop an activity that is not occurring in accordance with an approved management plan.

3. On Monday, I will be meeting with the chief executive of Kiland in Sydney to both express my concern and discuss strategies that can help prevent the situation from ever happening again.

4. The Department for Environment and Water will boost its compliance activities by increasing the number of unannounced inspections to the blue gum plantations on Kangaroo Island; and

5. This to underpin these efforts—and noting that this has ramifications for all plantations inhabited by koalas across the nation, not just Kangaroo Island—government officers will raise the management of koalas during plantation felling at the National Koala Recovery Team board meeting being held today in Brisbane, with the intent of seeking a national best practice approach.

No animal, national icon or not, should ever be treated in this way. I would like to acknowledge the contribution of the member for Mawson, who deeply understands the importance of this matter to the Kangaroo Island community and has been working with me closely on this matter. In finishing, I would actively encourage anyone with access to any evidence that could potentially support the department's investigations to contact the Department for Environment and Water or Crimestoppers at crimestopperssa.com.au.

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