Water Infrastructure

Ms PRATT (Frome) (15:35): I rise to talk about water infrastructure in the electorate of Frome. On the weekend, I was doorknocking the fantastic peri-urban town of Two Wells that is the southern frontier of my electorate. Four hours later, doorknocking in Two Wells, it was clear to me that everyone who was home wanted to have a conversation about water infrastructure. I think that bodes well for what is going to take place next week in Two Wells, and that is the government's country cabinet coming to visit the Adelaide Plains.

While I, on behalf of my community, welcome the government's attention on a flourishing and growing area, I have not yet been invited, but I am sure that it is in the mail. I am really looking forward to the public forum that is going to be held at Two Wells Primary School because that is going to be an opportunity for the community to come along and present to the government some of the infrastructure issues that we are facing. In particular, the member for Taylor, our Minister for Planning, is going to hear a long shopping list, I think, of what my community is asking for.

What is the government going to hear from the communities across the Adelaide Plains? When they raise with me issues around water, it is pricing, it is the quality of water, it is access, equity of access, water pressure and water flow. Really, what seems to be looming as a crisis in infrastructure for our housing sector is the fact that we are just running out. I think it is way too easy for the state to blame any of this on the drought that we experienced last year. These are problems that have been looming for a little while. It is certainly true that my communities are drawing down—I think we all are drawing down—more water from the system as a result of dry gardens and hot weather.

It was noticeable on social media. Chat groups were being flooded with complaints, queries and confusion from Templers, Roseworthy, Freeling, Wasleys, Munno Para, Jamestown, Marrabel and Saddleworth. It is statewide. My community were asking of each other: who can turn on the tap? Who has water pressure? The answer was no-one. So where is all this water that we need, and why are so many people complaining? I am going to go back to a case study I came across in 2021 that was in Freeling. It was at the Schuster Estate, a fantastic estate of three stages. I drove past recently, and I am happy to see that stage 1 is fully completed and people are in their homes.

But I note a single mum who was living in Gawler, renting a house, living as a single mum of a young person living with a disability. She had saved up her money and had put down a deposit on a slab, only to find that SA Water would not be connecting water to that property for the next revenue-capped period of 2024 to 2028. The short version of that story is that she had to get her deposit back. We have heard time and time again of how people optimistic about entering the housing market for the first time have found their hopes and dreams crushed because there is no water.

The Freeling issues do not just stop there. We are mindful of a number of construction projects that are at risk of being compromised due to a lack of water infrastructure, and there are reasons for that: the pressure is weak and the community knows that, the pipes are old and the community knows that. What we are looking for are signals from government that these towns are not going to be abandoned to solve these problems on their own or go without infrastructure, go without services because the government does not have a plan.

The Freeling CFS station is an important case to note as well because this is a critical piece of infrastructure solely manned by volunteers, operating out of a three-sided hay shed and waiting on commitments already made by the government that a four-bay station is coming. But here is a community that can see, through its CFS station, the loss of a police station and housing construction stalling, that water is at the heart of some of the decisions that the government is making. On the door in Two Wells—it is time? Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker. There is lots to say.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Brown): For the benefit of the house, members do have an ability to go over time for grieves.