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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-06-08 Daily Xml
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Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (14:47): My question is to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation: will the minister update the chamber on recent events that have celebrated and related to the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:47): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. It goes without saying that if we can teach more people about the significance of our migratory birds then we have a much greater chance of protecting them long into the future.

I am very proud and pleased that South Australia is doing its part by establishing the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary. It is important that we continue to engage meaningfully with the public, I believe, because without that direct engagement people will not understand our position in the world in terms of the East Asian-Australasian flyway, and how important that site is for those birds to feed themselves up before they engage in the return journey.

To mark World Migratory Bird Day on Tuesday 10 May, and to raise awareness of our sanctuary, a bird sanctuary movie night was held at the Mercury Cinema. It is great to join a packed audience of nearly 200 people—I think I was told it was 197 people—who helped raise over $2,200 on the evening. That money will be used, I am advised, to hold Nature Play SA children's education workshops in the bird sanctuary, and that will also help the next generation to understand the importance of migratory birds and to help protect the habitat of migratory birds.

It has been almost 12 months since we launched the collective, the leadership group, that is driving this very important initiative. On Friday 3 June, I also had the pleasure of celebrating this milestone with members, to thank them for their work so far. It is interesting, Mr President, to hear how the collective feel that their involvement has helped them and their local communities really to take a sense of ownership over this project. They report, and they said to me, that they found great willingness from their community, from people they engage with, on contributing their thoughts about what they want to see from the sanctuary, and how they want to interact with the sanctuary.

As part of the community themselves, we have representatives from the Vietnamese Farmers Association, District Council of Mallala, numerous birds groups and environmental groups involved, and it is very heartening to see that this is such a broadly supported initiative. The collective has also been engaged with the Kaurna elders, the school students, as I said, members of the Vietnamese community, particularly the Vietnamese Farmers Association, local councils and elected members of parliament, and of course many of our NGOs have been involved as well.

There is no doubt that Collective Impact, the innovative approach to engagement, has sparked people's interest, indeed their curiosity. Collective Impact brings diverse organisations together to work on common goals with the aim of shaping policy and achieving large-scale social change at the same time. Ms Carolyn Curtis, the CEO of the Australian Centre for Social Innovation and chair of The Collective, describes the approach in this way:

The project's meaningful engagement with local people, business and organisations is what sets this initiative apart from so many others. A one-off consultation will not create change—it is through building the capacity of local communities and giving them permission to shape the future that will make lasting change.

It is also the first time this approach has been used by government in South Australia and possibly the country.

I recently met with Kerry Graham, Australia's leading collective impact expert and director of Collaboration for Impact in Sydney, and she was full of praise for the work that is being undertaken here. She stated:

The state government's original vision for the Sanctuary is now widely shared across many parts of the community…There is no other initiative like this in Australia and it is definitely one to watch.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the members of the collective for their ongoing work. A big thanks also to our partners who sponsored and supported the movie night and continue to support the development of the bird sanctuary, including Birds SA, Nature Play SA, Birdlife Australia and the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board. Most importantly, I thank the members of the local communities and the businesses whose contribution is ensuring the success of this very important project.

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