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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2007-10-16 Daily Xml
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WATER SECURITY

Mrs PENFOLD (Flinders) (15:45): I rise to support our leader's drought motion this afternoon. Our state is lacking rain; however, since the beginning of time, water has been fully recycled and has never run out. It is the most plentiful commodity on earth, and in South Australia at $1.07 per kilolitre (that is, per tonne) it is the cheapest product by far that can be delivered to households for all uses. Get any other product delivered by the tonne to your house and compare the cost. People have the right to be supplied with ample clean water. A decent shower and beautiful garden are basic pleasures of life and they should not be denied by the arbitrary and stupid decisions of this government if we consider ourselves to be living in a first world country. Water is the one commodity left that is provided by a government monopoly, and it is the one thing that we have a limited supply of and for which we are paying millions of dollars out of our state taxes to try to reduce its consumption.

Now, to my dismay, we are going to bring in water police and start fining people. People are going to be encouraged to dob in their neighbours who will face hefty fines for doing something which should be legal and encouraged—that is, growing a garden. It is good for physical and mental health and it is good for the environment. If we are going to grow more trees and plants to use up the CO2 in the atmosphere and reduce global warming, we must have more water, not less, and be encouraging everyone to plant more greenery.

Water restrictions are totally unacceptable and unnecessary. Open up SA Water to competition and, with wind power, solar power, wave power and hot rocks all available in South Australia, water can be desalinated with little greenhouse effect, no additional cost to taxpayers and no need for a dob-in hotline or water police and fines. Private enterprise would provide all the water needed at little (if any) cost above what we are paying at present and with no threats or intimidation. The cost to the state from not maximising the water supply of our users is enormous, particularly if we are to value-add our commodities and diversify our rural economies to help drought proof them in the future.

With the advantage of being easily produced in unlimited quantities, cheaply and readily distributed through existing pipelines, with a small ecological footprint and enormous benefits to the community, why is water targeted for permanent restrictions and requirements that increase its costs and reduce its benefits except that it is the only commodity still provided by a government department? This then must be changed. The tendering out of the maintenance of Adelaide's water infrastructure to a private company proves the point. This part of SA Water's business that was originally making huge losses is now making profits that are going back into general revenue through SA Water.

The government's requiring water tanks for houses is cost-shifting from the least expensive water supply to the most expensive water supply and requiring the homeowners to pay for it. It is like requiring vehicle users to fill their fuel tanks only at service stations charging two to three times the cheapest prices. The cost of housing for individual families is already being significantly increased by the need to provide water tanks. In the country, where freight costs are the highest and the banks will lend the least, the government through SA Water is also charging massive augmentation fees on top of the usual connection fees and ongoing charges. Private investment into water solutions for South Australia is being ignored by this government and government owned SA Water, and it is costing millions of dollars to all our communities as well as the huge loss of amenity.

Marion Bay on Yorke Peninsula has provided its own desalination plant with the council's assistance despite the government and SA Water's lack of support. However, Cynergy's project at Ceduna, Acquasol's project at Port Augusta, the Solar Oasis project at Whyalla languished at a time when there were millions of dollars in federal funding potentially available that would have helped these projects to reduce the initial costs of the infrastructure and provide new water to these communities, reducing their dependence on the River Murray.

Instead, $48.6 million was spent on a pipe connecting Eyre Peninsula to the ailing River Murray. We had delays of months, even years, to respond adequately to letters; nil cooperation on access to SA Water pipelines; massive augmentation fees imposed on communities and a refusal to build desalination plants, or allow anyone else to do so, using SA Water's—that is, the taxpayers—$6 billion worth of infrastructure. This seems to be the government standard, all the while taking over $1 billion out of SA Water into general revenue—that is $300 million last year alone—and threatening to put up the price of water because we are using too much.

Time expired.

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