Environment, Water and Natural Resources Department

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL (14:52): Supplementary question, Mr President, arising from early on in the minister's answer. When the minister said that he could not recall a certain news headline, was he thinking of the ABC news headline from last Friday entitled 'Environment neglect has cost the SA emu wren, ecologist Professor David Paton says'?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:52): I have just been corrected that, in fact, the Liberal Party promised $50,000 in its policy at the last state election for the Environmental Defender's Office, which the federal Liberal government had defunded. So I just want to correct the record. I think I said something like $20,000 or $25,000; I believe it was actually $50,000. That was Liberal Party policy and that has now gone. In relation to the emu wren, we do not know—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: It's gone too.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: We do not know that, Hon. Mr Ridgway; it is a supposition on your part and others.

The Hon. T.J. Stephens interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The Hon. Mr Stephens says that we should go out looking for it. In fact, that is what the agency is doing and the Hon. Terry Stephens can join in if he likes, if he enjoys a bit of bird watching. However, we do not know that as a fact, and I have asked my agency to report to me when it has done the monitoring, and also report to me how it can re-establish populations, because I understand that there are populations over the border in Victoria. Small and endangered as they are, it may be that we need to investigate some captive breeding programs to reintroduce that species once the native habitat has bounced back from the wildfires in the Billiatt and Ngarkat parks.