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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-05-26 Daily Xml
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ADELAIDE, ECO-FRIENDLY CITY

Mr PICCOLO (Light) (14:21): Can the Premier advise the house how Adelaide has scored in the world eco-friendly city index.

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:21): I am very pleased to announce to the house—I am sure all members of the house will be delighted in this—that Adelaide has been named No. 1 in Australia and seventh in the world for being an eco-friendly city. The Mercer Quality of Living Survey 2010, released today, placed Adelaide in the top 40 in the world ranking of 221 cities on 39 criteria, including political, socioeconomic, environmental, health, education and transport rankings.

But importantly, in terms of being an environmentally sustainable city, Adelaide came in ahead of every other Australian city and seventh in the world, ahead of Copenhagen in Denmark, Oslo in Norway and Stockholm in Sweden. The eco-city criteria are rated on factors that include air pollution, traffic congestion, water availability and also waste removal. This independent survey puts into context on a world scale what we have been doing in this state to promote a clean and green environment.

For instance, South Australia is the destination of choice for wind farm investments, which I am told have now exceeded $2 billion in South Australia and before the end of this year will contribute 1,000 megawatts into our power grid.

A higher proportion of households in South Australia have grid-connected solar systems than any other state, helped by Australia's first solar feed-in legislation which pays a premium to consumers for household installations that feed excess power into the grid. We also have, of course, Australia's largest rooftop solar array on the Adelaide Showgrounds, which has now been declared a power station on the national system. We have made solar panels mandatory for all new and substantially refurbished government buildings from July this year.

We are planting a series of urban forest throughout Adelaide, including 3 million plants and trees under our Million Trees Program; 1.9 million have already been planted. ABS statistics show that in 2009 7,750 people in Adelaide were cycling into work each day—the highest figure for any Australian capital city and five per cent higher than the year before. There has been a 61 per cent increase in bike lanes and bike paths (now 777 kilometres worth) in and around Adelaide since 2002.

We have a $1.8 billion desalination plant due to open at the end of the year that will be totally powered by renewable energy. We have an innovative $2 million Building Innovation Fund designed to encourage building owners to use new technologies to reduce greenhouse emissions on commercial office buildings. Plumbed-in rainwater tanks are compulsory on all new houses, and SA already has the highest concentration of home rainwater tanks in the nation. The government is subsidising both plumbed and non-plumbed tanks.

Last year, SA became the first place in Australia to ban plastic shopping bags saving 400 million bags from being dumped into landfill and waterways each year. The state government is pushing ahead with a $2 billion investment in public transport infrastructure to electrify our rail and tram system, an extended tram system as well as an extended train system.

SA is ahead of its target to have 20 per cent of the state's electricity supplies powered by renewable energy by 2014 and on target to reach 33 per cent of renewables by 2020. The state has the most decarbonised electricity grid in mainland Australia and has an international reputation for hosting renewable energy and leading in waste management and water conservation. It has the highest level of stormwater capture in Australia and many existing schemes for aquifer storage recovery.

South Australia has the highest level of waste water treatment and re-use in Australia. It is the leader in waste management and recycling through programs such as the nation's first container deposit legislation, with the deposit, of course, being improved, and so on and so on. I am sure that members opposite will now try to decry the Mercer index. I am sure that they will now try to talk down Adelaide, but the Mercer index surveys 221 cities around the world and we came in seventh in the world and number one in Australia. At least people on this side of the house will be proud of that.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

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