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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-10-29 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

WATER ACTION COALITION

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (15:13): On 10 October, a community group called the Water Action Coalition called a rally here on the steps of Parliament House. The rally was well attended by people from across all sectors of our community, representing a large number of geographical areas. There were people from the Lower Lakes, the Murray and various parts of the metropolitan area.

I attended and had the opportunity to speak to the rally briefly. Neither the Minister for Water Security nor the Premier (who were both invited) attended; they both offered their apologies. I have been asked to read to the house a proclamation made at that rally, as follows:

This rally of concerned South Australians rejects the State Government's Water Security Plan. Our river systems and iconic wetlands are collapsing. Interdependent ecosystems are dying and our fragile Gulfs are being destroyed. This Water Action Coalition rally rejects the need for desalination, diversions, dams and weirs in the Lower Lakes. This rally demands sustainable solutions from its legislators. Our waters, both freshwater and marine, must be conserved and protected by laws. We demand comprehensive stormwater and waste water recycling. We demand that the River Murray and its rivers and creeks flow freely again to the Lower Lakes and to the sea. The Coorong must be reconnected to its freshwater sources in the South East.

Our plea to parliament is to think again. Our right and that of generations to come is for a sustainable water future not only for ourselves but for our environment.

WAC [Water Action Coalition] calls on the legislators in this parliament to conduct a public inquiry, with the authority of a Royal Commission, to address the urgent social, environmental and economic disaster that has been brought about by mismanagement and hasty interventions.

A sustainable water future without compromising our environment is the only acceptable outcome.

That is the proclamation made during the rally. I was there when the people attending that rally, by acclamation, affirmed that proclamation.

The Liberal opposition does not necessarily support everything that is being called for. We have not been calling for an inquiry with the powers of a royal commission, although it would be interesting to have such an inquiry to see if we can finally get to the truth of many matters. I think the people of South Australia are being misinformed at best, or misled at worst.

We certainly agree with most of the calls made in the proclamation. Certainly, the government's sham water plan for the future—Water for Good—is nothing more than a political document that has been compiled in the water security office at a cost of many millions of dollars; in fact, $2.4 million just to run an advertising campaign to sell a sham political message.

More than anything we support the demand for comprehensive stormwater and wastewater recycling. In talking about stormwater, we know that Adelaide's water security can be met into the foreseeable future just by having an integrated stormwater harvesting recycling system. The key to it (unlike the government's plans) is to bring that recaptured stormwater to potable standard so that it can be piped through the existing pipe distribution network. If we do not utilise that distribution network, if we do not bring the water to potable standard, we have to re-pipe Adelaide. That would come at a cost—and the latest estimate I have had is some $6 billion.

This state cannot afford that. If we do not do that, the water that this government claims (in its Water for Good document) will be harvested within four years cannot be used. It claims that it will be harvesting 20 gigalitres of stormwater within four years. All the public parks and gardens that are watered in metropolitan Adelaide use only 15 gigalitres of water. There are only a limited number of significant water users in Adelaide.

Without having the ability to distribute captured stormwater widely across metropolitan Adelaide we cannot use that as a source to underpin our water security. That is the very reason why the opposition, along with the Water Action Coalition, has been calling for a proper integrated and comprehensive stormwater harvesting scheme to bring water to potable use and use it right across metropolitan Adelaide.

Time expired.

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