OLYMPIC DAM EXPANSION

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:51): I rise today to make a few brief but sad comments about the fact that the BHP expansion at Roxby Downs is not going to proceed. I point out at the start that BHP were always very direct about their expectations. They were optimistic but they made it very clear that there were no guarantees until their board met and decided to give it approval. Certainly, all the BHP staff working in Australia were very hopeful that that would happen, but they made it very clear every step of the way that they could give no guarantees and that they needed the board's approval.

The government, on the other hand, told South Australians that it would happen. The government told South Australians it would happen as late as the Treasurer's budget speech in May this year when he told South Australians and this parliament that that expansion would be operating in a few years' time. It is no wonder that South Australians, and particularly South Australian companies and South Australians who were relying on those companies for their future employment, are so bitter with the government for the fact that it is not going ahead. It is no wonder that they made expansion plans and planned their future business growth based on the fact that the government told them that the expansion would go ahead. I join them in that very sad disappointment.

In the electorate of Stuart, the main street of Port Augusta has a very unfortunate situation with many retail stores closed. Properties are untenanted, closed and unlet and I think that is a great shame. I am hopeful that might turn around, because I think that a lot of business decisions at the smaller and medium end of things have been put on hold waiting for this announcement.

Of course, while we were all optimistic that it would go ahead, I think the fact that at least now we know it is not going ahead might allow some businesses and property owners who have been holding off on an announcement (probably because they believed that if the announcement was positive they might do a little bit better later on) to come out of their shells, so to speak. I make the analogy of somebody who is going to buy a new car or a second-hand car (new to them) and they are also applying for a job on double the salary. They might not buy any car until they find out whether they are going to get that new job and, if they do not get the new job, at least they will move ahead and buy the car that they can afford on their current salary. I am a bit optimistic that that is the way things will go in regional South Australia.

This government, of course, has pinned a lot of its hopes for regional South Australia on the Olympic Dam expansion and they have withdrawn a great deal of expenditure on regional South Australia in the belief and expectation that the BHP expansion would fill that gap. We have seen the government withdraw $24 million out of PIRSA funding, we have seen $4.1 million being taken out of Regional Development Australia funding, we have seen 5,000 full-time jobs disappear from regional South Australia in the previous financial year, and that is a trend that needs to be reversed.

So, I call (very earnestly) on the government to fill the gap. It has withdrawn support for regional South Australia over the last few years in the expectation that BHP and the expansion would fill that gap and do its job for it. Now we know that is not going to happen. I call on the government to get on with the job, re-focus on regional South Australia, make an adjustment to the extraordinary city-centric focus it has and start to fill the gap it has created, which it hoped BHP would fill, now it knows that BHP is not going to do its job for it.

Regional South Australia will survive. Regional South Australia will do well because that is what we do. We are tough. We get on with the job. We find a way. It will be no thanks to this government. This government does the bare minimum possible. It takes regional South Australia for granted. It knows that agriculture is the mainstay of our economy and it knows that under the most optimistic scenarios it would take mining a very long time to overtake agriculture in South Australia and the contribution it makes to our statewide economy.

We will get on with the job, but, as I said, I call on the government to fill the gap it has created and not to take regional South Australia for granted. We will find a way to survive but we would do so much better with the support of the government.