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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-07-26 Daily Xml
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KLEMZIG GROUNDWATER TESTING

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (15:23): My question is again to the Minister for Environment and Conservation. Is the minister aware of any other environmental contamination elsewhere in South Australia of which the government is yet to inform the public?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton—Minister for Environment and Conservation, Minister for the River Murray, Minister for Water) (15:24): Yes, that's right. I will allow for those interjections.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P. CAICA: Anyway, I am going to stay very calm, Madam Speaker. You will be very pleased about that because, quite frankly, the Leader of the Opposition should be brought to account for her irresponsible and reckless behaviour.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Madam Speaker. This is outrageous. Standing order 98: the minister has to answer the subject of the question and not be abusive towards the questioner.

The SPEAKER: Thank you for your point of order, but I do not uphold that. The minister is answering the question as he chooses. However, if it continues in that vein then I will think about it.

The Hon. P. CAICA: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think I have said this in the house before that, given the nature of the industrialised world in which we live, the past custom and practice that was acceptable custom and practice in days gone by has resulted in a level of contamination within groundwater as a result of what was then custom and practice which is no longer the behaviour that is acceptable.

As a result of that, not only here in metropolitan Adelaide but throughout the industrialised world, there are problems and difficulties associated with the leaching of chemicals, solvents and a whole host of other contaminants working their way through to the groundwater. That is why Health's quite appropriate directive and advice is that, if you have access to groundwater, don't drink it. If you have access to groundwater, we say don't use it, and if you are going to use it, get it tested and then tested every two years thereafter.

What I have attempted to do since I have been minister is ensure that the EPA becomes totally transparent about the information that it provides to people. In regard to this particular incident at Klemzig, as I said, there was no contamination, there is no contamination and what were we going to go out and tell people? It was appropriate to find out what is there and then develop the communications policy.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P. CAICA: 'Let's tell the public that there is nothing there.' Why would we do that? By way of information, the EPA legislation requires the EPA to place on the public register the test results in relation to not only those four tested bores but any other area that is being tested in this state at this point in time.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. P. CAICA: On the website. The former smallgoods site at 35 O.G. Road is on the website. This is interesting, Madam Speaker, because I am being accused of hiding stuff and burying stuff. It has been on the website since—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Norwood!

The Hon. P. CAICA: It has been on the website since 14 April this year.

The Hon. J.M. Rankine: You've hid it on the World Wide Web.

The Hon. P. CAICA: On the World Wide Web.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition.

Mrs REDMOND: I rise on a point of order on the relevance of the minister's answer. The question to the minister was specifically: is he aware of other contaminated sites that the public has not been told about?

The SPEAKER: No.

The Hon. P. CAICA: Madam Speaker, as I mentioned earlier in the context of the world in which we have lived and the consequences on the world in which we live, there are lots of sites. There are lots of contaminated sites, and what we are doing is prioritising the uploading of those sites onto the website.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P. CAICA: The first priority is to notify those people who are affected.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I cannot hear the minister's answer.

The Hon. P. CAICA: What I would say is this, 'Someone's dropped a bomb somewhere contaminating the atmosphere.' It's the opposition, and they are just bombing out.

The SPEAKER: Thank you. The minister will sit down. Order! Supplementary question.

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