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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-07-21 Daily Xml
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Community Wastewater Management System

Dr HARVEY (Newland) (15:43): A little over one month ago I spoke in this place about the Marshall Liberal government's $65 million investment that would deliver a long-term solution to the Tea Tree Gully's Community Waste Water Management System (CWMS). You do not have to search very far in a suburb like Banksia Park to find someone who knows that there are big issues with the CWMS. I have previously described this system in detail, as well as some of the many problems with it, including the massive price hikes that the 4½ thousand households in my community have faced and continue to face, and the increasingly frequent blockages, and in some frankly unacceptable instances the raw sewage that some households have had flowing through their backyards.

The Tea Tree Gully council has recently released more information about the state of the system that highlights the need for urgency in fixing this problem. The first glaring observation from the council report is just how much or how little of the system the council actually knows the condition of. The network of 117 kilometres of pipes connects over 4½ thousand properties predominantly across my electorate and also some properties in the member for Florey's electorate, the member for Wright's electorate and the member for Morialta's electorate, and of this 117 kilometres the council has assessed the condition of 12 per cent.

The council also reported on the condition of the structures of the CWMS. These structures are things like maintenance shafts and manholes. The council has assessed 89 per cent of these. However, more concerning than the amount of the system that has been assessed is the condition of what is known. In assessing the network, council applies the Office of the Technical Regulator's infrastructure standards. In accordance with the OTR standards, pipes and structures are assigned a rating of between one and five, with one being the most desirable and any rating greater than three being defective and requiring intervention.

Of the 12 per cent of the pipe network that has been assessed, a quarter has a rating of three, half has a rating of four, and about one-sixth has a rating of five. That is, two-thirds of the network's condition that has been assessed and is known to be in need of repair. Of the 90 per cent of the structures of the network that have been assessed, 64 per cent are rated three or greater, so the majority of the known condition of the CWMS is at breaking point. Indeed, the council has identified an area of Banksia Park that includes Elizabeth Street, Steventon Drive, Coulls Road and Tay Court where, and I quote:

The CWMS assets are defective and there is a significant risk that the asset may fail if timely intervention does not occur.

Of course, this would come as no surprise to many people in my community. They have known the CWMS was not up to scratch for many, many years and they have not been silent about it either. It is a damning indictment of those opposite. Not only did they have Labor Party members as representatives of my community in this place, including my predecessor, but they were in government for 16 years. They could have listened to the people in the community who were crying out for assistance, but instead they sat on their hands.

Unlike the former government, the Marshall Liberal government is listening. Since my election, I have been speaking with many people across my community but in particular with Rose Morton, Adla Mattiske, Jan Petersen and Jacinta Lamb, who have been key drivers for fixing the CWMS. They were, and I do not think they would mind me saying this, at their wits' end with the CWMS and the complete lack of interest in fixing it. I am proud that the Marshall Liberal government has listened to their concerns. We are investing $65 million to fix this dilapidated and defective system at no cost to households.

SA Water, at the direction of the Minister for Environment and Water, with whom I have worked very closely on this issue, is sitting down with the council to develop a schedule for the conversions. We are ready to convert the first properties from next year, and my community cannot afford for any games to be played that will only delay those conversions. The CWMS is at breaking point. The fee hikes are unfair and unjustifiable. My community deserves so much better than this dilapidated system, and the Marshall Liberal government has listened. We are delivering the long-term solution that my community deserves.

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