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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-11-13 Daily Xml
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DESALINATION PLANT

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (14:45): My question is for the Minister for Water Security. Is the full cost of the desalination plant, the land upon which it is to be built and the associated pipelines that form part of the project actually around $1.7 billion, not the $1.4 billion that the government has recently claimed? The government has previously told the house that the cost of the desalination plant would be $1.1 billion and the associated pipelines a further $300 million, a total of $1.4 billion. However, this week the minister told the house that the desalination plant itself had blown out from $1.1 billion to $1.374 billion. No mention has been made of the additional cost of the associated pipelines and infrastructure.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Federal/State Relations) (14:46): I will ask the Minister for Water Security for a response—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Hang on; the question was to her not me.

Mr Pisoni: You said you would take it.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Yes, well, I can't give you the answer, I'm sorry. You are asking me to take on face value that what you are asking is correct. I will refer it to the minister and let her have a look at it and compare it with her answers, and come back to the house. However, I can say that the desalination plant is being progressed extremely well under the very firm leadership of the Minister for Water Security, and we are on track, hopefully, to deliver that desal plant a year earlier than had been planned originally. I heard the nonsense yesterday from the leaders of the opposition—leaders are probably right—or members opposite about the cost of this plant blowing out.

Along with most governments of Australia, we are building desalination plants. Desalination plant costs have increased. I watched CNN news, as I often do before coming to question time, to get a dose of the real world, I mean from America—sort of an unreal world, America. They had a piece on their weather talking about the Australian drought and how we are already the driest continent, but the quality and the length of the drought is quite extraordinary. They actually made reference to the fact that Australian governments are now embarking upon a major build program for desalination plants. There are limited suppliers of the equipment that go into desalination plants. The lead times and the cost of those plants have gone up commensurate with the demand for those desalination plants. It is not surprising that those desalination plants are costing more.

There has been no blow-out in the cost of the desalination plant, because we have not received the bids as yet. We have not signed off on the tender, though we will be doing so in the very near future. The important point is that we have acted on water security. We will provide Adelaide with desalination. It is an insurance policy for this state for decades to come, and we have been the first government with the courage, the will and the ability to deliver it.

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