Reservoirs

Dr HARVEY (Newland) (14:28): My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. Can the minister update the house on how the Marshall Liberal government is backing businesses through opening up our reservoirs?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (14:29): I thank the member for Newland for his question. He is an enthusiastic supporter of the Marshall Liberal government's policy and program to open up reservoirs right across our state and no more so than Hope Valley Reservoir in his backyard, a reservoir that has had 23,000 visitors through the gates since we opened it in December 2020. It has been enthusiastically embraced by that local community as we have created a space for people to get into to enjoy the great outdoors and look over the water to the Adelaide Hills. It is a great project up there at Hope Valley.

At the weekend, it was a great pleasure to accompany the Premier and our Liberal candidate for the seat of Mawson, Amy Williams, as we opened on-water access at Myponga Reservoir. I think the Myponga Reservoir opening project is really the jewel in the crown of our reservoir opening projects. It is a project that has reinvigorated the township and locality of Myponga.

Close to 80,000 people have visited Myponga since we opened just the reserve lands around the reservoir back in April 2019. Initially, that was a three-kilometre walk or so and now it has been extended to an eight or nine-kilometre loop that goes through the pine trees, the native vegetation and looks out over the water. Hopefully, when you are in the town you will enjoy a coffee or something from the bakery or cafe as well.

On Sunday, it was great to go down there. We could not have planned the weather better. There was not a ripple of wind crossing the water surface; it was really still. There was mist hanging over Myponga and it was idyllic for the opening of on-water access. We had Paddle SA there. We started with a kayak race and then, out onto the water, lots of people went to fish, to kayak, to canoe and to explore the great outdoors that was formerly behind a fence.

This is a South Australian publicly owned asset, a place we want South Australians to get into. We are managing it, first and foremost, with a view to public health and drinking water safety, then conservation, embedding these reservoirs and this open space into our conservation parks, managing them with the same philosophy, the same ideology, as our conservation parks and then providing this great opportunity for people to get into the outdoors, get on the water and go fishing.

It is a far safer environment, potentially, than the oceans. People feel comfortable taking their kids and grandkids there, where they do not necessarily need to worry about the rips or the sharks—there are definitely no sharks at Myponga Reservoir. We have these safe environments we are creating for people to get out onto the water and they are just booming. There is no doubt this has an economic advantage for the township of Myponga and that western Fleurieu district, as over 75,000 people have experienced in only 18 months.

The now opposition, previously the government, and my predecessor, Ian Hunter—remember him—described this policy as 'pie in the sky'. Well, the only pies involved in this project are the pies flying off the shelves in Myponga bakery and the local cafe. It is going exceptionally well. It is far from pie in the sky. It is reinvigorating a local regional economy and our message is very clear: stay longer at Myponga.