Adjournment Debate

Giant Pine Scale

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:36): During question time today I put a very serious and straightforward question to the Minister for Housing Infrastructure who now has responsibility for SA Water. I put this question in relation to the trees that have been taken by the blight of giant pine scale.

Nearly 1,000 trees at the Hope Valley Reservoir, at Elliston Reserve and in the Highbury aqueduct land in Highbury have been infected by giant pine scale, chipped up, destroyed, to ensure that our forestry industry can be protected—an industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars to this state, largely in the South-East but also closer to the metropolitan area and in other regions in South Australia. It was important to get on top of the giant pine scale blight—a significant economic issue for South Australia; also, a significant environmental issue for South Australia. We do not want giant pine scale to become endemic to our state. We want to eradicate it. We want to get on top of it. It is a serious economic issue, also a serious environmental issue for our local area.

One thousand trees at a site like Hope Valley Reservoir or in Highbury in the aqueduct or Elliston Reserve are noticed when they are gone. It was a verdant and beautiful landscape with a thousand trees on it—in fact, many more than that. But the removal of a thousand trees has had a massive impact on the beauty of Hope Valley Reservoir. It has turned Elliston Reserve into a dust bowl that Tea Tree Gully council has done its best to deal with by putting ramps, bicycle jumps onto that reserve, but there is not a spot of shade to be gathered from natural trees. There is one tree right in the middle, very, very lonely, which was obviously immune from the pine scale. But as there are no trees there, there has also been an impact to the amenity of the aqueduct reserve.

We have suggested over a period of time opening up our reservoirs for more recreational use and hundreds of thousands of people—in fact, more than a million South Australians—have now done that at different reservoirs since we have done that. It was described by the minister as a niche project. At Hope Valley we want walking trails certainly to be considered, and other infrastructure, and that was dismissed as a niche project. That may be the government's view. It was their view in the past that they did not want reservoirs opened up. That is a policy difference between the Labor government and the Liberal opposition. That is fine, we are happy to have that policy difference.

What I really objected to during question time today was the way in which the minister was utterly dismissive of my perfectly reasonable, straightforward question, which was not loaded in any way with political bias or traps for the minister, his utter dismissal of the importance of these thousand trees—1,000 trees in Hope Valley and Highbury—in the member for Newland's electorate and in my electorate. The significance of the loss of those trees is actually enormous. It is not something that the department is capable of doing, whether it is SA Water, on the Hope Valley Reservoir land, whether it is the Tea Tree Gully council land across the road, or the Department for Environment and Water land on the old Highbury Aqueduct Reserve. It cannot be understated.

They cannot fund the replanting of these trees out of general revenue, out of business as usual. Even if the minister and the Labor government were to have their way and there is not to be any more opening up of reservoirs, and even if the minister and the Labor government are to have their way and there is not going to be any further opportunity for people to enjoy the vistas of Hope Valley Reservoir, to walk around the reservoir or even, God forbid, to have other recreational activities around that site, I would have thought that it was not a political issue to replant some trees.

I would have thought that there would have been some interest from the minister, who is responsible for a site as significant as the Hope Valley Reservoir, to note that there are, I think, nearly 800 trees on that part of the site alone that are gone. If the government is not interested in replanting them, then I would be really disappointed. I was really disappointed in the minister's answer today. If he just did not know the answer, that would be one thing. If he has not yet made a decision or has not yet convinced the Treasurer to provide additional budget allocation to enable the replanting effort to take place, that would be okay. We would give them some more time.

We would have liked this decision to have been made months ago but if the government has advice that the pine scale threat is not yet over, then they can tell us that too. These would all be acceptable or reasonable answers, but, no, it was the dismissal, the utter denigration of the nature of the fact of the question being asked at all, which I thought was really unsettling, really concerning, and really disappointing.

I know that for residents in Hope Valley or, indeed, for residents in Dernancourt nearby, or residents in Highbury, my electorate, people who use the Hope Valley Reservoir, who use Elliston Reserve, who walk on the Highbury aqueduct land, who live near it—I would have thought that many of them would have found it unsettling as well. I would have thought that for people much further afield, who have concerns and interests in the environmental and biodiversity value within our metropolitan area, the loss of 1,000 trees was something that was worthy of the government's attention.

It would not come as a surprise to the minister or the government that this was an issue. This is an issue which the former minister, the Deputy Premier, has had many letters and correspondence about. The Minister for Primary Industries and Forest Industries has apparently taken ministerial lead responsibility in managing the pine scale effort because of the particular expertise that is required to manage the risk of that pest.

But the Minister for Housing, the super minister with responsibility now for not just housing and infrastructure but also for public housing and SA Water—we were told the reshuffle was going to be so across his brief, was going to be so across the detail in every area, and was going to be able to bring together each of these parts of the aspects of the housing portfolio under one roof and thereby get better outcomes for the people of South Australia—has responsibility for the site which has the overwhelming majority of the loss of these trees.

It is for that reason that I was so disappointed at the answer in question time today. I am looking forward, in good faith, to hearing the minister when he has had more opportunity to consider the matter. I took some heart, I should say, at the beginning of his answer, when he said that it gave pause for the government to think about it, and I thought that we were going to get a serious answer to a serious question, but it deteriorated from there.

I am hopeful that the minister will now take the time to consider this issue with more seriousness. I am hopeful that he will seek further funding, if further funding is required from the Treasurer, to ensure that a program of replanting can take place. I would also urge the minister to take very seriously the strong support from the local community and for there to be further community consultation on what further steps can be taken at the Hope Valley Reservoir. I am not demanding that he come back with a particular dollar figure on day one of what might be happening there.

We had a project that was costed at about a million dollars just for some modest walking trails so that people could walk further around the reservoir. It is not necessarily going to be that cost any more; a substantial amount of the funds will be different because there are no trees in a substantial amount of the area that was going to be done.

However, presumably there are people in the department and people of goodwill within the government who are planning on replacing some trees. When that happens, that would be the ideal and logical time for there to be consideration of further activities as well. If you replant the trees without further consideration happening, then it becomes much more difficult and expensive to do any further work if further work is to be done.

I urge the minister and I urge the government, and further in relation to the Minister for Environment in relation to the aqueduct reserve land certainly, to take this issue seriously. I urge them to consult with the community—and not just my community but the member for Newland's community, the member for Hartley's community, and probably the member for Torrens' community as well. It is an essential feature in that north-eastern patch of the Tea Tree Gully council.

I also urge the Treasurer—and the government more broadly, while we are at it—to work closely with the Tea Tree Gully council. It is a very substantial plot of land across from Awoonga Road on the northern side of Lower North East Road, and Tea Tree Gully council has responsibility for its care and management. That plot of land, as I said before, is used by cycling enthusiasts and BMX riders. It is not going to get much use in the warmer months, and it is not going to get much other recreational use in the wetter months because, as I say, it is a pretty denuded wasteland at the moment.

It would be an extraordinary significant expense to be borne by the Tea Tree Gully council if they were to bear the cost of helping to meet the state's biosecurity protection needs of eradicating that pine scale and have to be solely responsible, without state government support, for the replacement efforts on that site. I hope the government will work with the Tea Tree Gully council to get a good outcome there.

I also hope that the Deputy Premier will take an interest in her patch of land at the Highbury Aqueduct Reserve and ensure there is also some consideration given to replanting there. Constituents in Highbury, the member for Newland's constituents in Hope Valley I expect, and certainly the member for Hartley's constituents in Dernancourt—I have spoken to the member for Hartley about this many times, and he supports this strongly—would all value the government's interest and support for replanting and potential further works in this area.