National Trust of South Australia
The Hon. H.J. GUMBYS (19:45): I rise to speak in support of the motion on the National Trust and to outline the government's position clearly. The National Trust of South Australia operates independently from government, enshrined in its own act of parliament since 1955. That independence matters. It reflects the community-based, volunteer-driven nature of an organisation that has spent seven decades preserving the place where women, men and families who built this state left their mark for future generations.
Labor governments in South Australia have a proud history of working collaboratively with the National Trust and its regional branches, demonstrated most recently through the passage of the Ayers House Act 2024, which returned the National Trust to its spiritual home after it was displaced under the previous Liberal government. We remain committed to that partnership, but partnerships require trust and right now trust has been severely tested.
The Moonta Mines precinct is a heritage site as well as an anchor for an entire regional tourism economy. Moonta was named South Australia's top tourism town for 2021 and the mines are its centrepiece. The area covers 320 hectares and contains state heritage listed structures including the museum, the tourist railway, the miner's cottage and the much-loved sweet shop. Today Burra and Moonta are recognised as two places of outstanding national heritage significance where Cornish mining technology, skills and culture are demonstrated to an exceptional degree.
Yet, since February of this year, this remarkable place has been effectively closed to visitors. The head office of the National Trust made the decision to disband the Moonta branch committee and assume full management control of the Moonta Mines precinct. The site was briefly reopened only to be closed again, with the CEO saying the trust would not reopen until the current dispute is resolved.
The Minister for Climate, Environment and Water has been actively engaged on this matter from the outset. She has met with, spoken to, and written to a broad range of stakeholders: the President and the Chief Executive of the National Trust, the Copper Coast Council, representatives of the Moonta branch committee and her parliamentary colleagues. Throughout every one of these interactions, the message from this government has been consistent: we want the parties to sit down at the table, negotiate in good faith, and reach an outcome that sees this remarkable site reopened for tourists, for the local community and for volunteers who have given so much to it.
I am pleased to advise the council that the Department for Environment and water has and will continue to play an active role in trying to mediate the situation between the two parties, and this government will continue to support and facilitate that process where appropriate.
To assist with transparency in the meantime, the minister has written directly to the National Trust requesting that they make public a register of their assets and details of property transactions they have undertaken, and that they review their policies, procedures, rules and by-laws. These are reasonable requests. Transparency is what sustains the public confidence that organisations like the National Trust depend on.
I also want to briefly note what I have been hearing from constituents in Hammond. The issues at Moonta are not isolated. Across the state, volunteers and committee members have raised concerns about being asked to fund their own operations, to keep branches alive through their own fundraising efforts while having very little oversight or accountability from the central organisation. When people give their time and their fundraising energy in good faith and find themselves without a voice in decisions that affect them, that erodes the goodwill that keeps these organisations functioning.
An Environment, Resources and Development Committee inquiry is a serious matter. It is not a step taken lightly and it has been this government's strong belief that such an inquiry could and should be avoided. The National Trust is an independent body and our strong preference has always been for those matters to be resolved by the people and organisations directly involved.
But the government supports this motion because the communities affected deserve answers, because the volunteers who have dedicated years to this work deserve to be heard, and because the governance framework, underpinning the National Trust—some of it dating back 70 years—deserves proper scrutiny to ensure it remains fit for purpose. The Department for Environment and Water will continue to investigate what legislative or other levels may be available to assist with this matter going forward.
Finally, I place on record this government's full and unqualified support for the World Heritage bid for the Burra and Moonta Cornish mining sites, a consortium effort between the Copper Coast Council, the Regional Council of Goyder and the National Trust of South Australia. That bid represents the very best of what regional communities can achieve when they work together.
World Heritage listing would put these extraordinary places on the global map in a way that would benefit the Copper Coast, Yorke Peninsula and the entire state for generations. We want that bid to succeed and, for it to succeed, this dispute must be resolved. I commend the motion to the council.