Question Time

DESALINATION PLANTS

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (14:02): My question is to the Premier. Why did the Premier promise $1.4 billion for a desalination plant without first ensuring that the matter was properly considered and approved by cabinet? On 12 September 2007, the Premier, when asked about his surprise desalination announcement on that day, told the house:

My statement to the house yesterday, as well as in the news conference yesterday, has the total support of the Treasurer and, indeed, the entire cabinet, as you would expect.

But yesterday the Deputy Premier advised the house, 'No cabinet decision has been taken.'

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:03): I remember that when the Leader of the Opposition, early in the year, announced his support for a desal plant, there were no costings, there was nothing, it was a press release. This is the same Leader of the Opposition who at the last election was part of an opposition that said that it would forge its water policy by 2009—2009, that is how urgent members opposite thought it was.

I am delighted to announce to the house today that we will have two desal plants, one near Whyalla to service the giant Olympic Dam expansion, with a South Australian government and a federal government component which will be there to supply desalinated water to Whyalla, Port Pirie, Port Augusta and parts of Eyre Peninsula; it will probably be the biggest desal plant in the Southern Hemisphere. There will be a second desal plant for Adelaide, as an insurance policy for water security in the future. I know members opposite think the media is having a quiet day, so what they hope to do is to cobble up the emotion of three weeks ago, because the one on Tuesday did not go that well, and hope that they fall for it again. The fact of the matter is this: we are committed to two desal plants—one for the Spencer Gulf and one for Adelaide—because we have a policy and we are not waiting for 2009 like members opposite.