House of Assembly Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1) 55 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Question Time River Murray Flood River Murray Flood The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS House of Assembly Black Leader of the Opposition River Murray Flood The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:09): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier have a plan to provide immediate emergency shelter to people who may become homeless due to high floods in the Riverland and, if so, what is it? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain. Leave granted. The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS House of Assembly Black Leader of the Opposition The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: It was reported in The Advertiser today that, and I quote: …between 3500 and 4000 homes and businesses in total are expected to be inundated when flood waters hit. The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS House of Assembly Croydon Premier The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:10): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question because it is an important one on an obviously exceptionally important subject. It also provides an opportunity for me to inform the house and, more broadly, the people of South Australia of important information that has come to hand with respect to this very issue in only the last 24 hours, essentially. The 3,500 to 4,000 figure that The Advertiser reported—and it is also the number the government has been using publicly now for some time—is principally derived from South Australia Power Network figures. What we have been able to do more recently, through the Office for Data Analytics within the government, is take the flood mapping and then layer that over the top of other data the government has available to it, from RevenueSA and the like, to try to have a more prescriptive figure not on just the number of properties that are affected but more specifically on the number of homes where it is the primary place of residence. We have always known that the majority of that 3,500 to 4,000 number has actually been shack owners or for properties that aren't a principal place of residence. We are very determined to know what the more discreet number is. From that exercise, there are two key numbers. The first is that at the 200 gigalitres level of water flow the number of homes affected is 455. I will qualify that number by saying there could be some inside and outside that number; it might be less than that, it could be slightly more, but that is the best available number that we have. At the 250 gigalitres level, that number goes from 455 to 1,086. If we take the worst-case scenario of 250 gigalitres a day, which we are naturally preparing for, there will be 1,086 homes where people will have to find alternative accommodation. All the advice—because we have been actively asking this question, not surprisingly, at the Emergency Management Cabinet Committee forum, amongst others—is that the overall majority of those 1,086 homes do have their own plans and are in the process of executing those plans, and most people will have access to alternative forms of accommodation. Our concern rests with those people who either don't have plans or, even worse still, in an absolute minority of cases, those people who might not even be fully aware of the fact that at 250 gigalitres their home could be inundated, which is why the government, having been in receipt of that data, is now going through a comprehensive exercise to visit upon those properties and have direct communication with them. That's an effort being led by SAPOL, but other key agencies such as the SES, but also the MFS, amongst others, are embarking on that. We want to get to those people and make sure they have alternative accommodation arrangements in place. In terms of what those could be, principally it will be people finding their own arrangements with friends, family and the like, but where that can't be accommodated the state government is providing a range of services and assistance: support through bonds, support through emergency relief grants, up to $5,000 for alternative accommodation. But then there is also an effort to make sure we've got places for people to go. Between the South Australian Housing Authority, the location of particular centres, the acquisition of facilities at caravan parks, we are trying to facilitate all options available, particularly given the tight circumstances we see within the housing market, particularly the rental housing market at the moment. This effort remains ongoing, but I can assure the house that the government is turning its mind to all of these considerations to address them as best as possible.