Question Time

DESALINATION PLANT

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:31): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Urban Development and Planning a question about major projects and in particular the Adelaide Desalination Plant.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Australian National University Professor of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, Peter Collignon, is on the record as saying, 'Desalination plants built close to sewage outflows risk contaminating water', with membrane technology sometimes failing to screen out the bugs. Professor Collignon's paper to the Medical Journal of Australia shows that water from Sydney's desalination plant at Kurnell, using the same technology as the one built under the South Australian government's major project legislation, tested positive to E. coli bacteria. Professor Collignon says that building a desalination plant close to a sewage outflow was 'one of the fundamental things you would not do'.

The Kurnell desalination plant intake is 2.5 kilometres from the Cronulla sewage outflow. At Port Stanvac, the intake is 1.4 kilometres offshore, and the Christies Beach sewage outfall is just 3 kilometres away. In light of Professor Collignon's question, and given the minister is responsible for this major project, how can the minister guarantee that E. coli will not contaminate Adelaide's drinking water? Secondly, has the government considered moving either the intake or the sewage outfall because, as the Treasurer said in another place, 'Shit happens'?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister Assisting the Premier in Public Sector Management) (14:32): I did read some reports in the news media in relation to some comments that were made in relation to the situation in Sydney. Obviously, it is a matter for SA Water whether that research is new or brings up any previously unrecognised issues in relation to the operation of the Port Stanvac desalination plant.

I think one thing we do need to recognise is that within this state we are much better at reducing the outflow of our sewage than has obviously been the case in Sydney, where, of course, for many years raw sewage, or near raw sewage, had been pumped out; and, of course, Sydney is a much a larger city than Adelaide.

I know that some of the treated water from the effluent plant has been reused. The program was developed during the 1990s. The Hon. Mr Brokenshire might well have had something to do with it. I know that—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: We are talking about not putting water out to sea. We are talking about reducing the outflow and, of course, that is one of the things that if you want to reduce—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: I want a guarantee that he stops interjecting.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: If the water is treated and reused on shore, you obviate that need. I do not know what the volumes are in relation to any particular outflows from that plant and what is reused and so on, but I will refer that to my colleague, the Minister for Water, just to ensure that, if something new that has not been considered has come up in that particular report (I am not sure that that is the case, but if it is), I will make sure I get a report from my colleague and bring back a reply.