SA Deputy Premier Vickie Chapman urged to stand aside from Smith Bay deep sea wharf decision

Deputy Premier Vickie Chapman is a sixth-generation Kangaroo Islander, but is she too close to have the final call on a controversial new deep sea wharf?

Deputy premier Vickie Chapman has been urged to stand aside from the decision making process for a proposed deep sea wharf on Kangaroo Island because of her close ties to the district.

The plea comes as claims emerge that former Planning Minister Stephan Knoll was on the verge of approving the controversial multimillion dollar wharf before his shock resignation in July last year.

SA Best MP Frank Pangallo said Ms Chapman, a sixth-generation local on the island, where she remains a landholder and farmer, should recuse herself from the decision.

“I am quite uncomfortable that the ultimate decision for this wharf actually is in the hands of a person with a significant interest (in Kangaroo Island),” Mr Pangallo said.

“It would be my view that the minister would perhaps recuse herself of this significant decision.”

Mr Pangallo urged the government to “get its skates on” and make an announcement on the wharf as soon as possible and said the fact that a recommendation was yet to land on Ms Chapman’s desk was not good enough.

“This is a vital development that will generate hundreds of jobs and plough tens of millions into the local economy which badly needs investment confidence,” he said. “It has been going on far too long.”

Deputy Premier Vickie Chapman on Kangaroo Island after the 2019-20 bushfires. Picture: Emma Brasier

Ms Chapman took over the Planning portfolio when Mr Knoll resigned from cabinet in July last year after he was caught up in a country members accommodation allowance investigation by former Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander.

Kangaroo Island Plantation Timbers wants to build a $40 million seaport at Smith Bay, on the island’s north coast.

The proposal has met vocal opposition from Kangaroo Island Council and the neighbouring Yumbah Aquaculture abalone farm, who have raised concerns about the wharf’s environmental impact and the effect on local roads and tourism operators.

KIPT submitted its first concept plan to develop an export facility at Smith Bay in October, 2016.

The plans have been through three rounds of public consultation – the latest closing in February.

Kangaroo Island Plantation Timber's revised plans for Smith Bay.

Managing director Keith Lamb said that in the month before Ms Chapman took over as Planning Minister, KIPT had been openly discussing with officials from the Department of Infrastructure and Transport the timing of an announcement about the wharf.

He said the government had issued draft terms of conditions of approval for the wharf on June 17 last year and his company responded to a request to comment on these conditions by June 19.

“The announcement we anticipated would have been that the minister had made a decision on our major project development application for Smith Bay,” Mr Lamb said.

“It’s not usually done that a proponent would receive draft conditions of approval and be asked to comment on them if the minister was going to be told that he should deny or decline the application.

“We had reason to believe, which I think was reasonable, that we were soon to receive a positive decision on the major project.”

A spokesperson said Ms Chapman had no pecuniary interest in any property or industry associated with or impacted by the Smith Bay wharf and that the minister was waiting for a recommendation from the independent State Planning Commission before she could hand down a decision about its future.

South Australian politician Frank Pangallo.