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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-09-16 Daily Xml
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NORTH-SOUTH INTERCONNECTION PROJECT

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (15:04): I have a further question, and this time it is to the Minister for Water. Can the minister provide a guarantee that the north-south interconnection project will not cost more than $403 million and will not blow out by more than $700 million as the project it is replacing did?

In 2007, the Premier announced that the government would be building a $304 million pipeline to connect the two reservoirs in the north and the south. At public meetings and briefings provided to members in the past month, SA Water representatives have said that that project was abandoned as, in fact, it would cost more than $1 billion.

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton—Minister for Environment and Conservation, Minister for the River Murray, Minister for Water) (15:05): I think there were a multitude of questions there—400 million, 700 million, 1 billion. Quite simply, I will make this point: the government is certainly committed—and we have not hidden this at all—to making sure that we have water security and water security into the future for the people of Adelaide.

Part and parcel of that process is to ensure that we can distribute the water from the desalination plant across the length and breadth of this city. Also, in the context of the federal election, of course the federal government had nothing to do with the north-south interconnector. It was an absolute politicisation of this process, beyond what I think ought to have been the case, but I do accept—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. P. CAICA: Well, it shouldn't get worse, because what the member for Bragg wants to do is to compromise the ability of this government to secure water supplies for all South Australians, for all people of Adelaide in the future. That is what they want, and they are acting in an absolutely irresponsible way.

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Madam Speaker. The minister is clearly debating the answer to the question.

The SPEAKER: Minister, have you finished?

The Hon. P. CAICA: No. I haven't, Madam Speaker; but I will very quickly. Again, if they interject I will respond accordingly because it is bad manners to interject. What I can say is that we have allocated $403 million to ensure that we are able to secure water supplies through the connection of the north and the south systems, and that is what the project will cost.

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