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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-03-08 Daily Xml
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FINNISS ELECTORATE

The SPEAKER: I call the member for Finniss.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Can we have some order back in this place, please?

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:26): Thank you, ma'am. I will be talking about things relating to my electorate, you will be pleased to hear.

The SPEAKER: Good.

Mr PENGILLY: Just let me note, also, Madam Speaker, that I recognise on this International Women's Day the fact that the Liberal Party is the only party in this state that has had a female leader. I think that is worthy of noting today. However, I return to matters more relevant to the electorate.

The state government is currently formulating its budget to come down on 9 June. Can I issue a plea yet again for the government to consider funding rural roads? It is an abysmal situation on both sides of the water in my electorate where the councils are struggling to keep up with the mammoth amount of work required on those roads and, indeed, I do not know where it is going to end if the government does not distribute some of its GST revenue more appropriately across the board to assist councils across the state to do something about their road networks. They are deteriorating rapidly and it is a major cause for concern. So I issue a plea to the new Treasurer to find some money for the councils in my area. Heaven alone knows that Yankalilla and Kangaroo Island councils, in particular, are struggling for funds and the roads are deteriorating at a rapid rate.

The other matter I wish to bring to the attention of the house is the situation in relation to SA Water. Yet again, SA Water rears its ugly head. SA Water has come up with a proposal (which came through the budget process, I might add) to increase the holding capacity out of the Middle River dam for the towns that it supplies on Kangaroo Island, Parndana and Kingscote. I am all in favour of increasing the capacity but the spin job being done at the moment trying to con the good people just out of Kingscote that they can put in bladders, take over some 50 acres, or 20 hectares, of land and make an abysmal mess in the middle of a prime rural zone beggars belief. I believe the people are being conned.

I have held a meeting of constituents. I have discussed the matter with SA Water personnel who have talked to me about it. On the weekend I was approached again by local residents. They think they are being fed a load of hogwash. What it boils down to is that it will cost $5 million to move this project further out of the town and to add to the infrastructure to get it in. I say to the house, Madam Speaker, that, taking into account the amount of money SA Water has wasted over a period of time, $5 million is nothing; and, spread over the life of the project, which would probably be a hundred years, it is even less.

A couple of people spoke to me on the weekend about this. They said it is a snow job and they are being conned by SA Water. It is so-called consultation—yet more of this Rann government consultation that doesn't really mean anything. I intend to expose it once and for all in this place as it moves along. I say to the house, loudly and clearly: this project is in the wrong place.

The project is good. I have identified a couple of other areas. It is up to the government to instruct SA Water to get their heads out of the clouds, or wherever else they have their heads, and listen to the local people—not to try to bully and cajole the landowner into selling land that he does not want to sell and not to try to interrupt a rural living zone.

I have discussed this matter with numerous people, and it concerns me greatly that, yet again, it is a bit like the consultation on marine parks that we did not have. We have arrogance taking over with the state government through SA Water in this particular case, trying to bulldoze a project nobody wants in that location and trying to con the public. Well, I am not going to be conned and I know that some of the residents up there will not be conned. I know that Dr John Willoughby, the owner of the land, will not be conned. I know that the local press will not be conned. I say to the government: this is simply not good enough.

This project will eventually come to the Public Works Committee one day when a site is finally found. SA Water needs to be told by the minister, and he has enough headaches at the moment with the Western Mount Lofty Ranges Water Allocation Plan, the marine parks daft draft sanctuary zones, and everything else. He needs to get on top of his portfolio and on top of his bureaucrats and, in this case, on top of this stupid project location. It needs to be moved some kilometres out of the town of Kingscote on some flat land where it is away from residential areas, away from rural living. It needs to be put out in the general farming area. We should spend the additional money required and make it a project that we can all be proud of.

If I have to come here again and speak about it, I will. It is simply not good enough. It is an outrageous disgrace and it is another example of con politics from SA Water under the banner of the Rann government. I am not going to fall for it and I hope that the people of Kangaroo Island will not fall for any more of this nonsense. It is unrealistic. It is like the marine parks which will become a carbon tax debacle for minister Caica in South Australia.

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