MOUNT LOFTY RANGES WATER CATCHMENT

Mr GOLDSWORTHY (Kavel) (15:49): I rise in the house this afternoon to speak on a particularly serious issue in relation to the water resources in the Mount Lofty Ranges region and, in particular, issues that have come to the fore in my specific electorate. This relates to the prescription process that the government is currently undertaking concerning the Western Mount Lofty Ranges water catchment area. The government has a bit of form in relation to this particular issue, in terms of the initial process that was undertaken in making the decision to prescribe the region and in relation to the community consultation process at the outset. I have highlighted this issue in the house previously, as has the member for Heysen, concerning the actual consultation that the government supposedly undertook. The community consultation process was really a communication of decisions that had already been made. However, we have moved past that stage in the process, and we have reached the point where the water allocation plan has to be formulated.

As a preliminary step in the water allocation plan process, a committee has been established to look at this aspect and will consult through the NRM board. More recently, a letter has been sent to key stakeholders—people involved in the issue: farmers, primary producers and affected parties. A letter and an information pack has been distributed to all those different people and organisations, and a series of public meetings are being held. Some were held last week, I understand, in the Fleurieu region (of which the member for Finniss would be aware). A meeting was held at Gumeracha last week, which I attended, and also at Hahndorf last night. I understand that two or three more meetings are to be held.

One only had to attend the meeting at the Gumeracha Town Hall last Thursday evening to gauge the level of concern that this part of the process is causing. The hall was packed to the rafters. I estimate that 300 plus people would have attended the meeting, which is an obvious indication of the level of quite significant concern that the local people have in relation to this issue. As the meeting proceeded, workshops were formed in relation to some key specific issues. It was all very well managed by the chairman of the local NRM board.

However, the quite specific point is that, if the government, the departments and the NRM board do not get this right—if they do not get the water allocation plans to all the individual primary producers in the Adelaide Hills—there is a real risk of destroying that region as one of the prime agricultural and horticultural districts of the state. I have spoken about this issue previously. The Adelaide Hills is a highly productive agricultural and horticultural district in South Australia. If the government, the bureaucracy and the people associated with making these decisions get it wrong, there is an enormous potential to destroy the Adelaide Hills region as we know it.

What makes the Adelaide Hills so attractive, not only to the people who farm and live there but also those who visit on a regular basis, is the open space. The only way in which we will maintain open space in the Hills district is to have viable farming operations, and these operations rely fundamentally on the satisfactory supply of water. If their water is cut off or a mistake is made in the water allocation plan it will destroy these people and their livelihoods, and it will also destroy the very environment of the Adelaide Hills which we all enjoy. That is the risk that the government and the bureaucracy take if they make a mistake with respect to this water allocation plan.

The 350 people who attended the meeting at Gumeracha and all the other people who have attended previous meetings, and those who will attend meetings in the future, share those same concerns. If one looks at a map of the affected area, one will see that it runs from the northern part of the Adelaide Hills right down through the Hills region into the Fleurieu. I know that the member for Schubert takes in the northern part of the Hills, and the member for Heysen and the member for Finniss also share my concerns.

Time expired.