Community Wastewater Management System

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (15:20): I thank the chamber for the opportunity today to be able to address an important issue that has been drawn to the Labor Party's attention now for some time and that I am pleased to inform the house my policy team and I have been working on for some months. Upon becoming leader of the Labor Party at the beginning of 2018, we commenced a comprehensive exercise post the last state election in getting out and listening to community members throughout the state.

We have picked up on a number of issues through that comprehensive program of listening, many of which are directly informing the policy that we are taking to the next state election. Today, I am very pleased to report on the progress on one such policy regarding residents of the north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide. Throughout my Labor Listens programs in and around the Tea Tree Gully area, particularly towards the first half or the early months of last year, one issue consistently seemed to be drawn to my attention, and that is regarding the Community Wastewater Management System that operates in and around Tea Tree Gully.

Having had that issue drawn to my attention, I got to work, along with the local member for the seat of Wright and also Mr Tony Zappia, and sought briefings from the Tea Tree Gully council regarding this issue. We got a briefing on the problem.

The Hon. T.J. Whetstone: It was there 16 years ago.

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr MALINAUSKAS: Put simply, this is a system that has been in place for 60 years—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr MALINAUSKAS: —and it is a system that is starting to—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Newland, order!

Mr MALINAUSKAS: —become incredibly unreliable for those residents in and around the Tea Tree Gully area. Approximately 4,700 households rely on the Community Wastewater Management System (CWMS) and it is failing them. I have heard of awful circumstances from residents, including from a Banksia Park couple waking up to a backyard that is flooded with sewage because the system had failed them. A Tea Tree Gully woman particularly comes to mind who was seven months pregnant and had to deal with a damaged blocked drain causing toilet water to flood the inside of their only bathroom, which made her pregnancy all the more difficult to deal with.

Fairview Park residents in their 80s, who themselves had health difficulties, were told that their septic tank was due to be emptied and that they had to dig up the lid, which was buried underground and that, if they did not do it, they would have to fork out the extra $120 to get someone to dig it up for them. A Banksia Park resident found sewage leaking into the creek opposite her house, while at the same time children from a nearby kindergarten had been playing in the same area. These stories kept coming up, so we have decided that we are going to do something about it.

Politics is a complex exercise and from time to time I know members of the community become disenfranchised with the process, but the truth is that politics at its best and its most powerful is when we identify issues and we decide to do something about them. That is why I am very happy to announce today that a Malinauskas Labor government will fund and connect all those residents in the Tea Tree Gully Community Wastewater Management System to SA Water mains sewerage.

This is a $91 million program. We have arrived at that costing through numbers from the Tea Tree Gully council. It is a fully costed and funded program that will genuinely deliver a better outcome for residents in that area. It will improve the amenity of the suburb, hopefully add positive value to house prices, and most importantly will provide residents with an elementary service that I think most people in a modern metropolitan city would hope and expect.

On top of that, a Malinauskas Labor government will instruct SA Water to go beyond the Tea Tree Gully CWMS and conduct a comprehensive review of all community management wastewater systems in metropolitan Adelaide. Finally, I will make a complete and important point: this program is also about creating jobs—serious infrastructure investment that will be delivered in the first term of a Malinauskas Labor government.

I would like to thank all of those community members who have advocated on this matter. We look forward to delivering this program and will continue to advocate for its delivery as best as possible.