EAST WANNEROO —
HORTICULTURE — ZONING
999. Hon AARON STONEHOUSE to the Minister for Agriculture and
Food:
I refer the minister to the answer
she gave in response to my question on Thursday, 5 September regarding horticultural rezoning in east Wanneroo. I note
recommendation 4 of the 2007 report, ''The Future of East Wanneroo:
Land Use and Water Management in the Context
of Network City'', and the precedent that the minister acknowledged
was set when 2 206 hectares in east Wanneroo were rezoned to allow further
development.
(1) Will the
minister commit to working constructively with her colleague the Minister for
Planning to extend similar rezoning opportunities in other parts of Wanneroo,
particularly the Nowergup and Carabooda areas where the horticulture industry
continues to struggle?
(2) Will the
minister likewise commit to working constructively with another of her
colleagues, the Minister for Water, to recognise the clear benefits in allowing
at least some of the water licences in the rest of Wanneroo to be rolled into
remaining productive farms, and for farmers whose businesses are no longer
viable on a realistic exit strategy, while at the same time boosting the
horticultural sector as a whole?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the question.
(1)–(2) As
I said in answer to the member's last question, we rezoned more than 2 000
hectares of land in that area. I urge the member to look at the importance of
preserving agricultural activity in that area. I believe some 30 per cent of
Perth's food comes from that area. The agricultural sector in the
broader Wanneroo area employs more than 1 000 people and contributes an extra
estimated $119 million in gross value production and, as I said, approximately
30 per cent of that is used in Perth. We are working very closely with the
Ministers for Planning and Water, along with the member for Wanneroo, in trying
to resolve these issues. The member may be
aware from whoever is advising him that under the previous government
there was a 25 per cent cut in the water allocations. We have now reduced that
to a 10 per cent cut. We believe that it is quite possible with modern water
efficiency to successfully plan to operate with that cut, which will not come
into play until 2028. We are doing very detailed farm-by-farm work with those
people—unfortunately, they are often lessees, because the landholders
are not farming and are leasing to people who are—to try to implement
the water efficiencies that we believe are possible.
We certainly do not take the view
that, having done more than 2 000 hectares, it is now open slather. But I do
support the development of an agritourism zone along Wanneroo Road to provide a
buffer with compatible land uses, and the member for Wanneroo, the Minister for
Planning and I are working to see how we can progress that.