Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NT Parks and Wildlife Executive Director Sally Egan explains what the government’s masterplan for NT Parks entails

Transcript

NT Parks and Wildlife Executive Director Sally Egan explains what the government’s masterplan for NT Parks entails · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, as you've heard, a master plan on the future
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: of the Northern Territories eighty five Parks and Reserves is
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: now complete. It sets out a number of targets for
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the next thirty years around nine themes, including tourism, park
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: access and Aboriginal economic development. Now developing a plan for
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: new tourism products, a climate change strategy and as well
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: as that new short walks and swimming areas and for
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: wheel drive tracks with camping sites are among the goals
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: over the next couple of years. And joining me on
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: the line to talk further about it is Sally Egan,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: who's the executive director of Parks and Wildlife. Good morning
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: to you, Sally.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Good morning, how are you?
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, really good, Thanks for your time this morning, Sally.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: What's the aim of the master plan?
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: So, really, what we were trying to do when we
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: set out on this exercise was to have some sense
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: of how the community felt about an agreed set of
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: strategic adjectives. So we it's been a while since we've
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: had a broader public conversation about what national parks are
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: for in the Northern Territory and what our community expect
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: from them. So it was an opportunity to just firm
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: some of that up.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: And so as part of the plan, what are those
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: main themes that you're really trying to sort of firm
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: up and give people a better idea I guess of
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: what we're looking at to the future.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: So we needed to say something about our biodiversity values
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: and cultural values and I guess restate that that was
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: the primary purpose of the National Park and that's what
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: informs people about when they visit our parks. That's the
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: branding that they're really looking for. That's what National Park
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: means to people. We also needed to do some resetting
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: and recommitment in the joint management space. So it's an
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: amazing commitment, the joint management commitment in the Northern Territory,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: and it just needed a bit of a fresh look
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: to make sure that we were able to go forward
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: into a future with that. Tourism and recreational futures for
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: territory parks are very important. So we all understand how
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: integral tourism and parks are in the charitory. They're hand
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: in hand and territorians are reliant on the Park of
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: State for most of their recreational opportunities. There isn't a
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: lot of other land access opportunities in the churitory if
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: it's not to one of our parks that reserve. So
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: that was really important. We have to do our bit
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: in the abervision economic development space, and you know, we've
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: got lots and lots of opportunity, but without a new,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: stated and concerted effort, then you know, change won't happen
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: by itself. We needed to really decide what it was
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: that we were going to do in that space and
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: push the agenda partnerships. You know, we can't do this
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: on our own. We need everybody to help us with it.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Growing the estate. So this was an interesting conversation about
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: whether Territorians would be interested in seeing more national parks
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: and reserves given that there is such a large amount
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: of land already set aside from production in the territory.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: And we've got really strong feedback that yes, Territorians would
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: be keen to see new parks and reserves established year right.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: And lastly, park access and this is a funny little theme.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: This is really about, you know, making sure that we're
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: keeping a live agenda on infrastructure and road access. And
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: we got quite strong feedback from people about equity of access.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: So Territorians want everybody to be able to go to parks,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: you know, all abilities people people, whether they're rich or poor.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: All of that came up in that conversation, so we
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: just needed to say something about that.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, now, can you tell me about some of that
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: infrastructure which has been flagged as part of the master plan.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: So there's a second document that goes with the master plan,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: which is called the NT Park's ten Year Activation Plan,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: And this is where the infrastructure priorities got set. And
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: I'll be quite frank about those, because we only had
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: two years to do this. We didn't have time to
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: go out and have very long conversations about this. So
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: most of the stuff that's in here is things that
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: people would have seen before, not necessarily new stuff, new ideas,
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: and if there is a new idea, it'll be qualified
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: by you know, we'll have to talk to traditional owners
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: or they might need some more work we need to
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: do on that space. So that plan has quite a
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: long list of what we think we can build over
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: the next ten years. And you know, the money for that, well,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: we'll have to some of it's already funded, some of
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: it's in the pipeline, and we know, we'll be able
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: to fund it, and some of it we'll be looking
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: for third party investors.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah right, because that was going to be one of
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: the questions that I would ask is how exactly is
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: it going to be funded and is there going to
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: be additional costs to territories in terms of having to
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: pay to get access to park?
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so the master plan is not happening in a vacuum.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: It's happening in association with the revenue measures that people
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: are seeing roll out across parks. So there was the
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: increase in camping fees and the introduction of multi day
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: walking fees, which does affect territorians, and that has already
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: improved our resourcing, I guess. And then the next one,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: the big one, the game changer, is the park's pass,
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: which is due in on the third of April, where
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Territorians don't have to pay, and it's not my expectation
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: or anyone's expectation that they will have to. In fact,
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: we're setting up the online booking system so that you know,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: you don't even have to log on if you're a
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Territorian and get a parks pass, even for free.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah right, So.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: But that being able to have a reasonably low entry
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: fee for interstate and international visitors makes a huge difference
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: to resourcing, and we'll be able to do a lot
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: of the work that's in this master plan based on
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: that revenue stream.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: So there is enough revenue that comes in from those
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: interstate visitors, or you're hoping that there will be from
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: sort of the third of April when those passes come
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: into play, that it will fund some of this work.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Correct, Yep, it'll fund a lot of things, So it'll
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: you know, a lot of the feedback that came up
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: in the planning process from people was that we want
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: more investment in joint management, we want more time spent
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: with traditional owners on country. We want better weed control,
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: we want better feral animal control. We want to be
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: able to see a ranger when we go out on park.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: We want you to be a little bit fatter as
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: an organization, and we want our infrastructure to be maintained
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: a little bit better, and we want you to be
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: able to think about some new and interesting things. So
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: we'll go through a process now doing what I'm calling
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: an investment planning process, where we'll look at that revenue
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: and we'll will work out how we're going to try
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: and give the territory and community what they have asked for.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Sally, we are running out of time, but I do
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: want to ask when it comes to that gamber management,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: how is that going and what additional work's going to
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: happen as part of your forward planning to make sure
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: that we've got the gamber grass under control as best
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: we can.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Gamber at Little. So it's an old issue, and I
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: know we're running out of time, but I think, you know,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: we just have to sit down with all the information,
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: and we're really pleased that we've got the models, you know,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: future projections from CDU because that makes let's just make
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: some really good decisions about what we do going forward.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: We're not yet able to say we're going to do
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: this one or we're going to do that one. And
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: I still really want to see some sort of modeling
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: that tells me how much money I would need to
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: spend at Lichfield that would see gamber grass get less.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: So the models that we've got at the moment are
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: still saying it'll be this amount of millions, and at
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: that amount of millions, you will hold the line. But
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: I think be bolder than that and say, well, how
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: many millions would it be before we start to see
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: less and less and less gamber at Lichfield. So it's
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: part of an ongoing conversation and I'm not apart from
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: the work that we've got in place, and you know,
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: this investment planning process, we're not yet at a position
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: to be able to say we're going to do X
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: at Litchfield, but we will do something well.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Sally Egan, the executive director of Parks and Wildlife, I
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: appreciate your time this morning. Thank you very much for
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: having a chat with us and talking us through some
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: of what is in that master plan.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: Thank you, have a lovely day.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: You two