Eyre Peninsula Water Supply

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (17:12): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker and I, too, congratulate you on your elevation to your position. Welcome back to all members of parliament—those who have been re-elected—and congratulations also to the new members, a number of whom have sat their first day today.

I want to talk today about the water supply on Eyre Peninsula, a topic that I have discussed often in this place. It is certainly not the first and it will not be the last time that I speak on this topic. I want to bring up an inquiry that was conducted by the Natural Resources Committee during the last parliament, a very comprehensive inquiry which was ably led and diligently pursued by all the committee members, and which gave the opportunity for many Eyre Peninsula residents to air their concerns about the ongoing viability of the water resource and the management of that resource. It also gave the opportunity for government departments to give their side of the story.

In the end the inquiry came up with 12 succinct recommendations, and the obligation, as I understood it, was for the minister for environment and water to make a response to those recommendations within four months. The minister obliged and did that within a day or two of the due date, and in his response he indicated that of the 12 recommendations made by the Natural Resources Committee he agreed with just three, partially agreed with another three, and disagreed with the remaining six. I have to wonder what sort of response this is. It seems to be rather tokenistic, particularly as the minister indicated that action had already been taken to address the three recommendations that he agreed with.

It seems to me that after a big effort by a responsible standing committee of this of parliament the response was rather tokenistic, particularly when we consider that SA Water have indicated in their own supply and demand statement that by 2018, which is only four years away (within the expected life of this newly elected current government), the demand on the Eyre Peninsula water supply will exceed existing supply.

I think we should step back, take a breath and take very seriously what this is saying. It means that within four years the population and industry of the Eyre Peninsula will require more water than SA Water is currently able to provide. We are desperately in need of what I call 'new water' to take the Eyre Peninsula into the future. Currently, 85 per cent of our water resource is drawn from what we call the southern basins. A big part of the inquiry and of the evidence they received was around the management of those basins and the decline in water levels and the environment sustaining those basins.

We have seen the collapse of a couple of significant basins already, including Robinson Basin in Streaky Bay and the Polda Basin near Elliston (in between Lock and Elliston). There are certainly indications that the southern basins west and south of Port Lincoln are also in decline. I believe that the pressure will not come off those basins. The pressure on the extraction rates that are exceeding recharge and leading to the decline of these basins will not be relieved until new water is sourced. So, here we have the situation where 85 per cent of our water is sourced from basins, a renewable supply that is being drawn on unsustainably. The other 15 per cent of our reticulated supply comes from the River Murray, which, of course, has its own issues.

Particularly given that way back in 2002 the government made a commitment to build the desal plant on the Eyre Peninsula (that is more than 12 years ago now, and the commitment was written in blood by the then minister, or so he said), and we are yet to see any indication from this government that there is any intention whatsoever to supplement the water supply on the Eyre Peninsula, I urge this government to address this as a matter of urgency, because if we do not collectively address this then there is a whole portion of the western part of this state that is going to be in dire straits.