SA Water

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY (14:50): My question is to the Minister for Water. Earlier this year, the minister provided answers to questions that I had asked in relation to SA Water's maintenance program. In the response, the minister advised that:

…the condition and the performance of individual pipes within the water network are also monitored and recorded every day by SA Water.

Can the minister advise why there have been 14 bursts in approximately the last three months if the condition and performance of SA Water pipes are monitored every day? Surely the likelihood of a burst should have been detected if the pipes are monitored every day.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:51): I thank the honourable member for his most important question, and I come back to the information I have given the chamber in the past. We have 14 bursts every day. We have 27,000 kilometres of pipeline—27,000 kilometres of pressurised water pipeline, which is much more than New South Wales and much more than Victoria—

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire: We are not interested.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The Hon. Mr Brokenshire says, 'We don't care about water businesses elsewhere.' He doesn't care at all. Out of his own mouth, the Hon. Mr Brokenshire says he doesn't care. Well, we know that, Mr President; all he cares about is himself.

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Oh yes, like fun! The Hon. Mr Darley wants to know about the maintenance programs of the pipes and I have given that chapter and verse in this place before. The average age of our pipes in South Australia is 51 years. This is well below the lifetime that many of those pipes were built for, which is on average 150 years. We have a continual maintenance program where we address the issues of the replacement of the pipelines. We spend over $300 million on average every year to make sure that we are renewing our infrastructure. Of that, $50 million alone is spent on the water pipes themselves.

We have a very active program of maintaining our pipes, checking them and getting to them promptly when they do have bursts. As I said to the honourable member previously—which the Hon. Mr Brokenshire does not care about—every water delivery system has leakages and bursts—every single one. The trick is to have the bursts reduced to a manageable level. In this state, we achieve that better than most other water utilities in the country. We are up there in the top four because of our continued maintenance program.

The PRESIDENT: Supplementary, the Hon. Mr Ridgway.