IRON ORE, EYRE PENINSULA

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:13): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Urban Development and Planning a further question about the Port Lincoln iron ore export facility.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: I refer to community debate this year in Port Lincoln that has put fishing and mining communities at loggerheads, with Centrex recently gaining approval from DAC to build bulk handling facilities at Port Lincoln to allow Centrex to export 1.5 million tonnes of ore from Wilgerup prospect, near Lock, on Eyre Peninsula.

In the estimates committees, in July, the minister stated that export through the Port Lincoln township might be temporary, and I note there is allegedly a 10-year sunset review of the Port Lincoln arrangement. The minister made reference to the approximately $400 million Flinders Port export facility. In July, the minister said in the estimates committees that he hoped the decision by the infrastructure minister was not too far away. Unless I am mistaken, I do not believe the Minister for Infrastructure has yet made a decision. Therefore, my questions are:

1. Did the government consider building a new deep sea port elsewhere in the vicinity of Port Lincoln?

2. Did the government consider the additional rail traffic and other traffic congestion issues involved in moving through the Port Lincoln area?

3. Did the government consider Port Lincoln's clean and green image when giving this approval?

4. Can we take it as read from this decision that the state has been set back 10 years in getting a desperately needed new deep sea port in the northern ports area?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (15:15): The honourable member, of course, was at the time a minister in a government that made the decision to sell the ports of South Australia. What I find rather strange is that, in reaction to my Centrex decision last week, Mrs Penfold, the member for Flinders, said that a government with vision would have built a port. What was she doing when the Olsen government was getting governments out of the business of building ports? I find it rather extraordinary. However, for better or worse, the government made the decision a decade or so ago that it would not be in the business of running ports. That was the decision made by a previous government a decade or so ago. That is the situation we have. I am not going to go back and revisit that decision. The reality is that the expertise—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: I am just pointing out that I find it rather curious that a couple of members who were there and obviously supported the decision at the time should somehow or other be seen to have changed their mind about the wisdom of that decision. The fact is that a decision was made that Flinders Ports now operate the ports within this state.

Certainly the state government has a role in relation to facilitating port development. In relation to Port Bonython, I may have some answers about that matter. One of the issues is that it is necessary for approval for foreign investment and so on for those likely export companies that might seek to export through Port Bonython, and one of those is Western Plains Resources. The honourable member would be well aware of the recent press discussion and Defence's view in relation to the future of that project. Clearly, that is one of the factors that will delay any decision in relation to that matter. If one does not have approval for companies to export iron ore, who will invest the money to build a port if there is a question mark over the companies that might supply the iron ore?

That is clearly an issue in relation to alternative deep sea ports. However, this government does remain committed to supporting the development of a new port in the Port Bonython area which is, of course, deep enough to take cape size vessels and would operate effectively as a bulk export port for the northern area of the state.

In relation to Wilgerup, the Centrex Metals resource, it is much closer to the centre of Eyre Peninsula and is quite close to the existing rail line, which is near Lock and goes through Port Lincoln. The existing infrastructure is much more suited to using Port Lincoln as an export port rather than having to truck the material through Whyalla or thereabouts to go to Port Bonython. So, clearly, that is not a preferred solution.

However, as I indicated in my earlier answer, Centrex Metals has purchased a site at Sheep Hill. I understand there is 20-metre deep water within half a kilometre of the shore and is otherwise suitable as a potential deep sea port. To bring that about it will need to justify the expenditure and it will need a number of other projects to be advanced.

It is the government's view that, by enabling the Wilgerup project to proceed and establish the credentials of this region as a suitable provider of iron ore to the world through Port Lincoln, and by using existing infrastructure (which can be done at a much lower cost than the construction of a new port), that decision will ultimately enable the establishment of an iron ore industry on Eyre Peninsula. That development will proceed at some stage in the future.

Clearly, the volume of ore available from the Wilgerup project now would be unlikely to support the economic investment necessary if an entirely new port and rail infrastructure had to be built. I believe that will come. I believe that, in a decade, there will be a new port—probably several new ports—on Eyre Peninsula, and there will be a flourishing iron ore export industry on the peninsula which will complement the existing port and hopefully, by then, the facilities at Port Lincoln will no longer be required.