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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-07-03 Daily Xml
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MURRAY RIVER

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:30): In the short time allocated to me today, I want to bring to the attention of the house and to the attention of the people of South Australia the absolute desperate straits being perpetuated in the Lower Lakes and, in this case, in my electorate of Finniss, in the Goolwa/Hindmarsh Island/Currency Creek area. In saying that, I am more than aware of the situation in other lakes and up the length and breadth of the river in South Australia. As was eloquently put by the member for MacKillop a few minutes ago, the lack of action and substance by the Rann government is, in my view, a criminal offence, and the government stands condemned for it.

In my electorate, there are desperate people—people who have reached the absolute end of their tether. They are seeing their livelihood whither up and die, and they are seeing their family being put under an enormous amount of pressure. They are wondering what the future holds for them, and they cannot get any drive or direction from either the federal government or the state government. After the announcement in the house this afternoon by the Leader of the Opposition about the outcomes of the COAG today, I think that will permanently finish off some of these people and their way of life and where they are going in the future.

I do not know how many members opposite have been down there to see what is going on, but let me tell members that there is little or no water coming down the river, and the waters are receding so quickly around Goolwa and Hindmarsh Island that, day by day, we are seeing more boats sitting on the bottom of the river, and we are seeing thousands, or more than likely tens of thousands, of long necked tortoises dying. But, more to the point, we are seeing the enormous impact on the community in those areas.

On Monday, I attended a meeting where some members of the community expressed their desperation and frustration about where we are going. What they want to know is where this is leading so that they can make a decision about where they will be in two years—about whether they continue in business or shut down it down, or whether their wife or husband goes out to work and about what their children will do—whether they stay in Goolwa or Hindmarsh Island in the region or whether they go away to work because there is no future.

The tourism industry is now faced with a progressive lowering of forward bookings, and they are in despair about the situation. A few businesses are still operating very successfully, such as hotels and such places where people go to relax as an outlet from the enormous amount of stress these people are under.

These people are in absolute despair, and they are getting to the point where they are lashing out. They can lash out at me as their local member; that is fine, I can absorb that. However, they are lashing out at the local councils and the mayors, and they are lashing out at the government; they are lashing out at anyone. That is what people do when they are stressed out of their brains. They have no other outlet but to lash out.

It is a very sad day for South Australia, and it is a very sad day for the people in my electorate who are in a situation where they just do not know where to turn. They have had Premier Rann make statements; they have had minister Wong make statements; they have had Prime Minister Rudd make statements; and they have had minister Maywald make statements. All they hear about is endless meetings, endless bureaucracy and endless plans and reviews—and no action.

They know we cannot make it rain, and they know it will take many, many months for water to come down the river if it was released today. But there is no direction and there is no future planning. They do not know where they are. On Monday, they were told, 'Oh, yes, there's another meeting in November to consider it further.' Well, I can tell you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I can tell the house that by November many of them will not be in business, because they will have had to shut down their businesses. They will not be able to make any plans for the future. They are desperate, desperate people in a desperate community, and my heart goes out to them.

I am fed up to the back teeth with the amount of spin, notification of meetings, and the absolute lack of substance coming out of the state and federal governments in relation to the people who make their living up and down the breadth of the River Murray and the Lower Lakes and, in this case, the people in the Goolwa, Hindmarsh Island and Currency Creek area.

For Victorian Premier Brumby to apparently boast today that he has done pretty well, I think is outrageous. I am worried that some of these people are going to do things they will regret. Their level of frustration and despair is such that they may take action they would not normally take. Some of them are not thinking normally, and it is a sad, sad day. I know the same thing is happening in my colleague the member for Hammond's electorate, further up the river.

Time expired.

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