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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-10-18 Daily Xml
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Water Portfolio Reforms

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (14:58): My question is to the Minister for Water and the River Murray. Will the minister update the chamber about how the Premier's commitment to reforms in the minister's portfolio areas has been instrumental in South Australia becoming a cleaner, greener and more vibrant place to live?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:58): It is very pleasing to have such an excellent question from such an excellent member. South Australia has a proud legacy of leading the nation when it comes to preserving the state's environmental resources for future generations. I have to say that I think we are facing a very significant anniversary this week. I think this week marks five years since the member for Cheltenham (Hon. Jay Weatherill) became South Australia's 45th premier and it has been a fantastic five years indeed.

Whether it is our actions to address climate change, protecting native flora and fauna or locking in the national Murray-Darling Basin Plan, there has been no greater advocate for these reforms than our Premier. The Premier has shown his commitment to reforms both large scale and small throughout the past five years and has been instrumental to South Australia becoming a cleaner, greener and more vibrant place to live.

South Australia has enjoyed record investment in renewable energy through the Premier's leadership. In 2009, we announced that we would increase the state's renewable energy production target to 33 per cent by 2020. We easily exceeded the target and now have a goal of 50 per cent renewable energy by 2025. This goal is coupled with a target of $10 billion worth of investment in the sector by 2025. Currently, $6.6 billion, I am advised, has been invested to date, with almost 40 per cent of that investment occurring in the regions.

Under the Premier's leadership, we released a new climate change strategy. The strategy sets an emissions target of zero net emissions by 2050—what the science tells us is necessary if global warming is to be less than 2° and what the federal government has signed up to in the Paris COP21 accord. This also makes us the first jurisdiction in the country to set such a target.

There is also the Premier's commitment to make Adelaide the world's first carbon neutral city—a showcase for renewables and clean technology. These initiatives are gaining us world attention. I am told that, during an event at this year's Climate Week in New York, a senior executive from Siemens told a room full of business and climate leaders about Adelaide's ambitions and steps that have already been taken here. That has been brought to the awareness of a whole host of people from around the world in New York, and it is just fantastic for him to put our state on the international map as he has done.

The Premier has also helped to create record investment in nature-based tourism in South Australia. South Australia is incredibly lucky to have some of the world's most beautiful natural environments. We have funded and opened the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary adjacent to the Upper Gulf St Vincent marine park. This means, of course, into the future, more jobs as tourists flock to visit the international migratory bird sanctuary but, importantly, it will provide threatened species with a safe haven for the future. Just last week, I joined the Premier to open the Kangaroo Island walking trail—a 61-kilometre walking and camping trail that links tourists and locals to some of KI's best locations.

These multimillion-dollar investments have come about from the Premier's economic priority to make South Australia a destination of choice for international and domestic travellers. Underpinning this principle is the goal to boost the industry to $8 billion a year and 41,000 jobs by 2020. With our nature-based tourism strategy Nature Like Nowhere Else, we hope to inject $350 million per annum into the state's economy and create 1,000 new jobs by 2020.

Under the Premier's leadership, South Australia has led the nation in successfully establishing a network of marine parks—one of the most significant conservation programs ever undertaken in this state. The Premier and I launched the 19 marine parks and 84 sanctuary zones in October 2014 to protect the significant biodiversity of South Australian waters, including the southern right whale, bottlenose dolphin, leafy sea dragon, great white shark, the Australian pelican, the little penguin, the Australian sea lion and giant cuttlefish.

Sanctuary zones only take up 6 per cent of our waters, which gives marine animals a safe place to retreat to and breed without fishing or other disruptive activity, which will result in stronger, healthier fish and marine environments and populations into the longer term. Marine parks have been carefully designed to avoid popular recreational fishing areas. The government is investing $3.25 million over three years, starting in 2014-15, to encourage community use of marine parks and to support recreational fishing in and around our marine parks.

The Premier was also instrumental in getting a great deal for South Australia in the negotiations for the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. We had many of those opposite, joined by the usual suspects—those commentators in the media—saying that we should essentially give up on returning serious water flows to the Murray, which all of the experts and scientists told us were essential for the future health of the river, but the Premier never stopped fighting for our state. We knew that, without the national plan and without adequate water flows returning to the Murray, South Australia, our economy and our local communities would suffer, and the Coorong—truly one of the most amazing coastlines in the world—would also suffer irreparable damage.

Farmers and irrigators in South Australia would suffer with reduced access to water without the Premier's championing of South Australia and what we desired out of that plan, and residents in Adelaide, as well as those in our major regional towns, would keep living with significant water restrictions if we didn't turn around what was on offer from the federal government and the Eastern States. But the Premier stuck to his guns and, against all the odds, delivered an incredible outcome for our state, and this government will not stop fighting for a basin plan that is delivered on time and in full.

Then there is the orphan sites policy reform. South Australia has led the response at a national level on contamination on sites where it's not possible to identify who is responsible for that contamination. We have established a cross-government orphan sites committee to make decisions on behalf of government and oversee an ex gratia assistance program. As a result, property owners are now better protected against health risks, and our policies in these areas are helping to shape other states' and territories' responses to the similar problems they experience.

The Premier's steady hand at the tiller has seen South Australia become a national and world leader in so many areas of our policy crucial to our state's future in an increasingly variable world. It is no wonder South Australians have responded to his leadership so positively, and I have no doubt that South Australians will do so again in March 2018.

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