Grievance Debate

MIDDLE RIVER DAM

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:31): From time to time members on both sides of this house have expressed concerns about the activities and the lack of action coming out of the natural resources management boards in South Australia. Last week, the member for Bragg, the member for Hammond, the Hon. Michelle Lensink from another place and I attended a public meeting held at the Kingscote Town Hall about the issue of water. I will come back to that in a minute but, out of the chaos and misinformation last week in what was, generally speaking, a poor meeting, in my view, has come a bit of good, because the board voted on Monday not to proceed with this foolish prescription mechanism for the Middle River dam.

A few things that happened on that night caused me a good deal of angst, and I was most concerned about the patronising and condescending manner of some of the speakers when they spoke to the 300-odd people in the audience that night. I do not think that Mr Michael Good, who is a planner for the KI NRM board, really has a grip of what is taking place on Kangaroo Island. Mr Good is charged with the NRM plan for the island. I have received nothing but poor reports from residents across the island about the activities of Mr Good, and I think that is most disappointing. In fairness to Mr Good, I do not think that he was condescending to the audience that night.

However, I was extremely disappointed about the way in which Mr Claus Schoenfeldt conducted himself that night. He gave quite a performance on the laws but, unfortunately, when he was taken to task or asked a question, he put people down—and, in fact, he put down the member for Bragg. I think that it is inappropriate for a public servant to put down a member of parliament in a public meeting. Frankly, I think it was quite disgraceful. However, Mr Steve Rose from SA Water was very good. He is on the operational side of SA Water, and he was particularly good and spoke very well, and I thought that his performance was excellent.

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr PENGILLY: Yes, he is probably done after that. A lot more questions were left unanswered, in my view, than were answered. We simply wanted to know who had put forward the idea that the Middle River catchment should be prescribed. Its current capacity is 700 megalitres, and it is interesting to note that, in a good year, 15,000 megalitres go through Middle River and out to sea. However, there is some concern about what water will or will not be used by the Middle River dam, which was built in the early 1960s. This has a long way to run. Fortunately, now, they will do a considerable amount of homework on it.

The general manager of the KI Natural Resources Management Board, Ms Jeanette Gellard, spoke at the end and made a few points about where the board is heading. This is what really worries me: she claimed that they are bringing in $3 million to the island. Most of it is going into salaries and projects, some of which would have to be considered a bit dubious. The reality is that it is costing $900,000 a year to run the Kangaroo Island Natural Resources Management Board. As one farmer said to me, his farm turns over $1.2 million with him and a couple of sons. An enormous amount of money is going into this administration and plans across the state.

However, as I said, I am pleased that, out of this foolishness and the way that things went that night, they have come to their senses and, on Monday, a majority of board members, I understand, moved not to proceed at this stage but to do a lot more work. It needs to be driven from the bottom up, not the top down. We have to stop having this top down mentality, which is coming from government departments and places such as NRM boards. They are driving it down and telling people what they have to have. I do not think it is right, and I am sure that other members in this place agree with me. If you cannot get it coming up from the bottom, there is not much point in having it.

Fortunately, the Middle River landcare groups and a few others will get together to try to drive this from the bottom. It is a step in the right direction. I hope that some commonsense will come out of it all and, at the end of the day, we will find out what water is needed, what water can be used where and, indeed, what needs to happen.