St Kilda Mangroves

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:58): My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. Did the minister or either of his agencies seek any assurance that brine would not leak into the mangroves when the company sought approval to pump into the dried-out ponds?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:58): Thank you for the question. This is a very important issue, and we take it very seriously on this side of the house. It is also important to point out that, while we are dissatisfied with what is happening and we are determined to fix it in partnership with the operator of the site, this is actually a very small section of the total mangrove area which is part of a bigger wetlands area that stretches for about 30 kilometres and which on the northern end abuts the bird sanctuary, which is a very important asset for South Australia, and in fact as it happens for the world in many ways with regard to migratory birds.

This is something we are taking extremely seriously. The Department for Energy and Mining (DEM) is the regulator, and I certainly take my responsibilities with regard to being the responsible minister. We work very closely with the EPA and we certainly engage with the Department for Environment and Water. It is also important to point out that the programs we are working through at the moment are the programs that were started back in about 2015.

This was a salt mine for about 70 years up until 2014, and because it was a salt mine it is the Department for Energy and Mining that is overseeing this important environmental work. This important environmental work started in about 2015, when the current operator of the site acquired it. Those opposite were in charge at that point in time and no doubt they did their very best to deal with this incredibly difficult site, as we now in government are doing our best to deal with this incredibly difficult site. Interestingly, some of the exact same people in the government departments are advising us on this work.

We take this very seriously and the fact that it is in a very small section of the total 30-kilometre long piece of land is not something where we just say, 'Oh, we'll sweep it under the carpet then.' The Minister for Environment and Water did a very extensive interview on radio this morning on this. The shadow minister, in fact, before the Christmas break asked me to organise a briefing for her, which I certainly did. I understand she has now had two briefings—three, she says. We are sharing as much information as we possibly can with everybody who is interested and with everybody who wants to combine with us to address this issue.

It is an incredibly complicated site, and part of the complication is due to the northern Adelaide water that used to flow through this area. There is now far less of it available to actually use for stabilising the water quality on this site. The fact that we have some hypersaline water, which has certainly had an impact, is something that we are working very closely on with Buckland Dry Creek, which is the company operating this site. They are following our instructions and we are watching them very closely.

Essentially, the instructions given to them by the Department for Energy and Mining come directly from our internal regulators and the EPA. There certainly is no minister in this government who is meddling or trying to interfere or pretending that we might know what is best. We are taking the regulator's advice and we are implementing the regulator's advice. We are working with the operator, we are working between agencies, we are working with the public and we are happy to work with the opposition on it.