Question Time

Northern Water Project

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:05): My question is to the Premier. What is the estimated cost and timeline for delivery of the Northern Water project? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: It was recently reported in The Advertiser on 28 October that a number of sources have raised concerns over the project, with the Auditor-General noting that the project does not have a fixed estimate of cost or timeline.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:06): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question because it is an important subject and an important project for the state generally. The state government, as the Leader of the Opposition probably is aware, is engaged in a comprehensive prefeasibility study in conjunction with a number of partners, including BHP, with BHP and the state government being the principal partners. That prefeasibility piece of work is a $200 million-plus exercise, which is an astronomical sum of funds for an analysis of this nature, but it is what it costs.

We have been rather diligent in making sure that this is an appropriate use of taxpayers' funds. We take confidence from the fact that all parties to the project believe it is necessary by virtue of the fact that they, too, have put their hands in their pocket, none more so than BHP. I can say this publicly because it is on the record, that they are contributing $77 million of that cost from their own funds, which BHP don't do for fun; they do it because they are serious and they appreciate the size of the opportunity that exists in the northern part of our state in and around furthering copper production—not just mining but also beneficiation. That work is in train.

One of the key functions of that exercise is to develop a consolidated cost because as part of that exercise we are also simultaneously going through the work associated with procurement of the work, of the project itself, and that will deliver us a comprehensive and accurate cost of what it actually takes to build. I have said publicly that this will be a very expensive project. It is a large desal plant. It is a pipeline of approximately over 600 kilometres long. It will be billions of dollars. I have said publicly that it will be well north of $5 billion, but we will have a better idea about how much that is on the back of the conclusion of that work.

The timeline for that, since the Leader of the Opposition also asked about timing, we have asked for that work to be completed by the beginning of 2026. That is the publicly stated timeline that we are working on. We want that work completed by the first half of 2026. In the event that that prefeasibility work demonstrates the project is of value to all of the parties concerned, including the government, i.e. in the interests of the people of South Australia, in the event that it is commercial, that it stacks up, it meets a whole range of criteria, then we would like to see work commence pretty quickly after that on the construction of the project in accordance with the timeline that will be established through the prefeasibility exercise.