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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-05-12 Daily Xml
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WILLUNGA BASIN PROTECTION BILL

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (16:25): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to provide special planning and development procedures to protect the amenity of the Willunga Basin; to make related amendments to the Development Act 1993; and for other purposes. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (16:26): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Last year, Family First introduced this bill, and I thank my colleagues who supported it because we were successful in getting it passed by the Legislative Council. It was all members other than government members. Of course, it stalled in the lower house. However, it was interesting that the political debate continued on the argument of protection of some of our prime agricultural land. We have issues at Mount Barker and in the Virginia/Two Wells triangle at the moment. It was interesting that, when the heat was on, we started to get hundreds and thousands of people petitioning in support of this, and, whilst the government, including the local member, initially dismissed it, the member for Mawson (Mr Bignell) began to see some importance in this bill.

He suggested that a joint working group be set up. In fact, the Leader of Government Business and minister for planning supported the request by the member for Mawson that government support be given to a working group. Mr Bignell's concept was that a group from the McLaren Vale/Willunga Basin wine region and the Barossa Valley wine region would work together to look at some overarching bill.

The fact is that, whilst I hope we will be looking at some general policy that has interests and aspects common to all those prime threatened agriculture areas that are peri-urban to the metropolitan area, all the study and research I have done shows that you do need to have dedicated legislation to protect each region, such as in the Napa Valley in California and in Swan Valley in Western Australia.

I note with interest that, after the election, the member for Mawson said that he would bring in a bill. If that becomes a government bill, I will be absolutely delighted and over the moon. I will have achieved all that I wanted to achieve, provided it has the same framework and intent as the bill that I have just introduced to the house.

We cannot afford to wait any longer and I do not want to see procrastination on behalf of the government. Whilst Family First supports development, at times you cannot have development at all cost, and the protection of this basin is really important for the long-term interests of food security, and all the other areas that I have mentioned.

I will not take any more time now. I commend this bill and I will give members time to rethink it, but I intend to put this to the vote in a month or two. I made a commitment to many people that I would do that, and, in the meantime, I hope to see a bill introduced by the government or by Leon Bignell as a private member's bill. I commend the bill to the house.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. T.J. Stephens.

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