Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

My electorate of Mayo is very proud to have one of the highest rates of volunteering in the country and a high concentration of local community environment groups. We are rightfully proud of our environment in Mayo. Its natural beauty is a core reason people visit and live in our electorate. I've been a strong advocate, since coming to this place, of environmental groups and the funding for those community environmental groups.

In Mayo, these groups are highly effective at implementing onground environmental work, including weed control and creating wildlife corridors, and climate mitigation work. Not only do these groups have a unique understanding of their local environment, but the work of experienced and passionate volunteers is a very cost-effective option for government to do good environmental work, and Mayo's volunteers are, indeed, passionate. I was therefore very pleased when the government announced the Communities Environment Program.

I'm pleased to advise the House that the 2019 program's electorate allocation of $150,000 for Mayo was fully subscribed, with 15 excellent and ultimately successful projects being nominated by my expert panel. All of the projects had a strong on-the-ground conservation focus, with projects including the planting of 2,500 seedlings by the Goolwa to Wellington Local Action Planning Association; planting efforts at JAKEM Farm, including the nationally vulnerable silver daisy bush, and I visited and joined in on the planting last month; the nurturing of 3,000 trees along Bull Creek Range, south of Meadows, by the Prospect Hill Bushland Group; the planting of native trees by the Wistow Community Hall on their property; the establishment of a native garden at Byethorne Park by the Nairne Landcare Group; the removal of bridal creeper weed from the Aldinga Scrub Conservation Park by the Friends of Aldinga Scrub; the introduction of a bush kindy for the children attending the Kangaroo Island Children's Services; and the planting and guarding of 2,000 plants along the Clayton Bay Foreshore Walking Trail by the Clayton Bay Nursery. They are just a few of the great projects that were selected in Mayo. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the government for this program and say that I hope that there are further rounds of the Communities Environment Program. My constituents deeply appreciated the government's support for their conservation work.

I recognise the desire for political equity, but I would encourage the government to consider allocating funding in a tiered manner, according to the land area of each electorate. This would help to ensure that the funds allocated to small and tightly clustered metropolitan electorates are not underspent. As a regional electorate, I know that Mayo could have doubled or indeed tripled the number of projects that were available with the funds. We have such diversity and quality of environment to nurture and many great local community environmental groups who are passionate about the work they do.

I would like to conclude my giving my thanks to members of the panel who worked tirelessly to take the field down to 15. I think it's really important that we in this place all pay tribute to the volunteers. I have been out there on Hindmarsh Island. It is raining and it's cold, but they are still digging and planting trees and clearing out the weeds. If I look just to Hindmarsh Island, they have a wonderful nursery there. They're growing in the nursery the plants that are indigenous to the area and then transplanting them across the region. We are incredibly fortunate in Mayo to have such wonderful environmental groups. I do hope that the minister will consider having this program again this year, in 2020.

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