Water Industry

Mrs POWER (Elder) (14:24): My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. Can the minister please update the house on the recent success of the South Australian water industry and the opportunities this presents for our state?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (14:24): I thank the member for Elder for her question, recognising the incredible importance that the water industry here in South Australia has to play in terms of innovation within our economy.

We know that during the Millennium Drought and beyond that, more historically, South Australia has had a history driven sometimes by crisis, driven by necessity to innovate when it comes to water. That has led our state to be a major player nationally and internationally, and world renowned as a great innovator when it comes to water technologies, water-saving devices and water efficiencies and practices, not just in terms of tangible technologies but also in terms of knowledge and understanding, which can, of course, be bundled up and taken overseas and interstate to share with other jurisdictions.

We have an industry that we can be very proud of, but we have an industry that has huge potential for growth as well. The global water industry is increasing in size by 14 per cent year on year. By 2025, the global water industry will be worth some $A1 trillion. It is an industry with huge potential for growth and South Australia as a state, because of the history we have around that industry, has the knowledge, the IP and the capacity to really be part of that international growth.

We have many successful players in the water industry here in South Australia, from very small businesses, mum-and-dad businesses based out of backyards, through to major national and international operators. Of course, we have our government-owned utility here in South Australia, SA Water, which, whether through the provision of water to households and businesses or through its laboratories, provides water services to the state and nationally. We have an incredible amount of knowledge and understanding in this state that we can offer the world.

On Friday night, we had a celebration of the water industry in South Australia with the Australian Water Association SA branch's Water Awards, a great opportunity for a bunch of water engineers to get together—not often seen as a particularly jovial group, but I can say that there is at least one night a year when water engineers let their hair down in this town. It was quite an exciting, interesting and surprisingly enjoyable evening.

Around 250 water engineers and associated professionals got together at the Festival Centre to celebrate what that industry brings to South Australia. There were obviously a number of awards handed out on that evening as well. Big players in the industry, such as SA Water, Suez and Allwater were celebrated with industry awards, and then we had individuals who received awards as well.

I want to particularly mention Andrew Knight, who won the student award for his research activities in the water industry, and I also want to mention Kevin Yerrell of Waternish. Waternish is an innovative company based in Lonsdale, down in the southern suburbs. I know the Premier was able to get down to the opening of Waternish's new facilities just a couple of weeks ago. Kevin, as operations manager in that organisation, has 33 years of driving forward water innovation in South Australia. As he is the recipient of the Premier's Water Industry Medal this year, I want to make sure we put on record our thanks to Kevin for driving forward this industry and recognise him in this place for the very significant role he has played in the industry here in South Australia.