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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-05-01 Daily Xml
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MARINE PARKS

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:33): My question is directed to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries on the government's marine parks announcement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Thank you, Mr President. I am not sure that I need leave, but in any case can the minister advise whether the claims by the northern rock lobster fisheries representatives are correct—that there will be a significant impact on their fisheries—and has she done an assessment across the state of the impact of the revised zones?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (14:33): I thank the honourable member for her most important question, but I also thank her for giving me an opportunity, in answering this question, to bring to the chamber's attention that this Jay Weatherill government has bought about a real first. We have led the way in this state in terms of marine parks. Finally, the Hon. Paul Caica, after a number of years of very hard work—and the hard work of a number of other ministers before him, myself included, and John Hill before me—

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. John Gazzola.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: The Hon. John Gazzola has done his bit as well, and I believe you have done your bit, too, for marine parks, Mr President. It has taken over a decade of extremely hard work to put these very important parks into place. In fact, I had the privilege of bringing the legislation to this place—I was minister at the time—and putting through the marine parks legislation, so I had some small part to play which I am very proud of, because these parks are very important to preserve and protect our marine environment and to ensure that the particular marine ecosystems have been identified and places set aside to ensure their long-term integrity. Of course, that is a critical feature for our ongoing biodiversity and our long-term sustainability.

It is a wonderful thing that minister Caica has recently handed down the latest round of zones, and we know it takes a lot of courage and an enormous amount of work because, as you imagine, with marine parks, there is a wide range of different stakeholder interests, each coming from different points of view. There are a great deal of monetary interests, commercial interests, environmental interests and social interests involved, so there is a very wide-ranging mix of views and yet the Hon. Paul Caica has been able to manage to deliver this plan.

We do not expect that this plan will achieve unanimous support. We know that that is impossible, because the points of view are too disparate, so we are not expecting unanimous approval for this, but we believe that we have significant approval for this from significant stakeholders and also we believe the general public is behind us as well. It is indeed a wonderful achievement, and I do want to acknowledge the hard work and commitment and dedication of the Hon. Paul Caica and DENR, who have worked tirelessly for many years to help pull this together.

The government has been working very closely with the fishing industry and representatives, as I said, over very many years to bring about these parks and, in doing that, we have sought wherever we can to minimise the potential impact that the marine parks might have on fishing activities, both recreational and commercial. I did note that The Advertiser today inaccurately reported the impact on the Northern Zone Rock Lobster Fishery. They reported, I believe, an impact of $18 million a year on that fishery.

I am advised that in fact the total value of the fishery is about $15 million per year for a quota of 310 tonnes. That is the advice that I have been given, so I believe that those figures that were reported today were inaccurate. I note that the claims that the effect of the proposal on the fishery would be—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.P. Wortley: It's all good news.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: Well, no-one can hear it, because you're yakking away.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: You're having a good yak over there, too.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ms Lensink asked the question; she obviously doesn't want to listen to it.

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: I haven't got an answer, yet.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Well, I've said, no, they're inaccurate. They said, '$18 million'; we're saying, no; the whole industry is worth $15 million. There is your answer. I also note that the claims—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: They obviously don't like the answer. It is obviously not the answer that they were looking for. They ask a question, and I provide the advice I have been given. The fact that it does not marry with their preconceived ideas—what can I say? They do not like the answer. Well, they have to suck it in. This is the advice that I have been given, and I note the claims that the effect of the proposal on the fishery would be 55 tonnes per year—that is the information I have been given—out of, as I have said, a total quota of 310, which is about 18 per cent.

SARDI is currently preparing estimates of displaced catch on the fishery, and we expect preliminary figures regarding this to be available soon. The government is keen to hold further discussions with the industry representatives to explore their recent claims and the disparity between our figures and their figures. We are happy to meet with them and to look at the disparity between those figures and see what they have to say about that, and we are happy to listen to them. If they can demonstrate that our figures are wrong, that is a reasonable thing. As I said, we are happy to meet; we are happy to listen.

The government remains firmly committed to buying out any displaced commercial fishing effort arising from the zoning of South Australia's 19 marine parks. SARDI is assisting the government in calculating the estimated impacts of the latest draft of the proposed sanctuary zones on commercial fishing production. These estimates will be included in the impact statements that accompany draft management plans, which will then be made publicly available during the upcoming consultation phase.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ms Lensink has a supplementary.

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