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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-06-30 Daily Xml
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Regional Economies

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (14:55): My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. Can the minister inform the house about how the environment and water portfolio is contributing to the Marshall Liberal government's commitment to boosting regional economies?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (14:56): I thank the member for Flinders for his question. I had the pleasure of being able to go along to Eyre Peninsula last week and spend some time travelling around that diverse part of our state and really gaining an even better understanding of what regional South Australia can contribute towards economic development. We know that our regions do so much in the way of holding up our state's economy. They provide so much in the way of value-adding, and under the Marshall Liberal government, they are a real focus—they have been since we formed government, but even more so in the wake of the COVID-19 disaster so to speak.

We need to work with our regions to maximise their productivity to ensure that they continue to provide food and fibre for our state to use both in our nation and to export overseas, but also our regions are an incredible destination, a drawcard in terms of the natural assets that are there, whether it be our stunning coastlines or our national parks. There are so many things in our regions which will draw people to be able to enjoy them, so it is great to be part of a government and to have responsibility for a portfolio which is investing in our regions.

We heard a couple of weeks ago the announcement that ESCOSA had handed down its 2020-24 determination that there was going to be a whole range of investment in water infrastructure in the regions. There is almost no better economic input than water-related infrastructure, or infrastructure that makes the availability and the certainty of water possible.

Visiting Eyre Peninsula, I was able to travel down to Port Lincoln and talk to locals about the progress we are making with the $90 million desalination plant that will be constructed out towards Sleaford Bay. Also, as part of the ESCOSA determination, we have been able to make the announcement that other parts of the state—those more regional and remote parts of the state—are going to be able to get more certainty of water supply. Towns like Oodnadatta, Marla, Marree, Yunta, Manna Hill are coming on to the SA Water service, and we will be able to give those towns certainty so that they continue to play an important part in the state's productive economy.

It has been fantastic to work alongside the Minister for Energy and Mining as he has provided advocacy for those communities—small communities, but still very important communities—and that artery, which heads out towards the New South Wales border. Those railway towns play not only an important role historically in our state but also an important role in the future as well.

When I was over on Eyre Peninsula, another area of economic productivity that we took a good look at was the sustainability of our agricultural land. The work that we are doing with our landscape reform and those decentralised boards is ensuring that communities are effectively empowered and get the resources to ensure agricultural sustainability—dealing with those basics: water resource management; sustainable agriculture programs, particularly around soil management; and, of course, dealing with pest, plants and animals, things that will create resilience in the landscape so that it can deal with the change in climate, so that disasters such as drought can be better coped with.

They will always pose difficulties in the Australian landscape, but we want to get those basics right so we have that resilience and so that economic productivity can be upheld and we can get on with rebuilding, sustaining and growing our state's economy.

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