Grievance Debate

SA WATER

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (15:16): Today I wish to bring the attention of the house to SA Water's $400 million secret. I am referring to the proposed development known as the North-South Interconnection System Project, under the Network Water Security Program of SA Water and the South Australian government. This comes when I readily acknowledge the contribution made by the then Waterworks and Drainage Commission, the Engineering and Water Supply Department, and then finally SA Water to the quantity and quality of the state's water supply.

Regrettably, in the last eight years this situation has disappeared down the gurgler. In the time I have been in parliament alone I have seen SA Water stall the security access by one of their neighbours at an SA Water site at Burnside, I have seen SA Water spend $47 million to refit a new headquarters for itself at Victoria Square while the rest of the state perishes, fail to supervise a contract with SA Water which, according to the Treasurer, has resulted in tens of millions of dollars loss to taxpayers of South Australia, to progress the doubling of a desalination plant solution for SA Water supply without seeing the saving of one extra drop of water from the River Murray.

We know that the cost of water we receive in the future will be excessive; energy use will be unsustainable and unacceptable. However, last night I attended a meeting at the Burnside Town Hall of residents from Simpson Road, Wattle Park. They attended for a briefing with representatives from SA Water about the north-south pipeline proposal. To refresh members' memory, in 2007 minister Maywald announced a $403 million interconnection project, which was essentially a project to connect water supply for Adelaide roughly split between the River Torrens in the north and the southern system. SA Water is not currently in a position to transfer large volumes of water between these systems, and announced a proposal to do so.

On 29 July last year the government announced a $30 million advance for the establishment of the preparatory work for this proposal. To my knowledge there have been no public works in respect of this expenditure but, finally, in June this year, after the election, SA Water started to consult one-on-one with residents around the proposed pipeline and pump station upgrades. One of these is at Wattle Park, a very significant one is at Clapham in the member for Waite's electorate, and another is proposed somewhere in the vicinity of Vale Park, probably in the electorate of Norwood but possibly in the electorate of Adelaide (yet to be determined).

This is a public asset. It is going to spend public money, a hell of a lot of it, in respect of a public service to be provided for South Australians, and it is clearly in the public interest. Yet, when I attended this meeting last night to be further briefed and, hopefully, receive some answers to questions that had been raised in the district, all members attending that meeting were told that this meeting was to be confidential—information about a major public asset, of which hundreds of millions of dollars is going to be spent, and the people attending were expected to keep this confidential.

For the record, this is an absolute disgrace. It is starting to infiltrate not just SA Water projects but also other projects, one being the stadium authority. I read recently that the Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure was to give a briefing to the Parklands Authority, but because they said, 'We are not prepared to have this as a secret meeting,' DTEI refused to give the briefing. This is unacceptable. I ask the Minister for Water, in this instance, to act on this and ensure that future public consultation is not going to be secret and that people are not expected to keep what is important to them and their neighbours a secret.

The people in this particular area around the pump station are concerned about whether alternative sites have been considered, the design, the location, noise, amenity, wildlife, significant trees, etc. Security and traffic are issues about which they all were concerned. We have not even started yet on the pipeline. We still do not know of any consultation for the people who live in Glen Osmond, Beaumont, Stonyfell or Wattle Park, in respect of the pipeline that is going to be dug up and relaid, double the size, under this project. Why is it that SA Water should be so secretive about this? The government must act for the people of South Australia.

Time expired.