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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-09-28 Daily Xml
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Adelaide Beach Management Review

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (15:13): I rise today to make a contribution in regard to the Adelaide Beach Management Review that is being undertaken specifically in regard to the beaches in the western suburbs of Adelaide. The review was announced in April 2022 and commenced in December 2022 and, as we have just learnt, despite being finished the public release of the recommendations to come from that review will not happen until 2024. So already we have learnt that the time frame for getting this done, which was originally committed to be 12 months, is going to be close to two years into the term of this government.

What we learnt from the review options that were presented nearly a week or so ago was that there are three potential options, ones that we already understood: to dredge, to build a recycling pipeline, or to continue tracking sand on our beaches, with a number of subvariants to that. This is information that we already knew. What we do not know, however, is what the time lines are for implementation in regard to any of those options. That has not been made clear in the document that was released last week.

What we also do not know are the answers to a number of key outstanding questions in regard to the dredging options. We do not know, certainly as far as I am aware, whether there has been an actual offshore sand source that has been identified. We know in previous years that Port Stanvac has been ruled out due to the lack of sand there. We know that Section Bank has been ruled out due to the Pacific oyster mortality syndrome that has been detected in the sand deposits there. As I understand, there has been no additional sand testing or core sampling done of any offshore deposits. We do not understand or have any assurances on whether the EPA will provide approval due to turbidity or plumes, if dredging is to go ahead.

There are so many questions to still be answered in regard to the possible or potential dredging options. What we do know, though, without a shadow of a doubt, is whatever option the government goes with, we need assurity that there will be a mass fill component onto West Beach as part of this. We know that the language may have changed and the government is now calling it restorative nourishment, but that must happen.

You have to remember that the former government was halfway through delivering a mass fill onto West Beach. I note that through all the documents that have been provided out to the public at the moment, the picture of the West Beach Surf Club sitting there on the corner at the end of West Beach Road, with a dry high tide beach in front of it, was at the point where we were halfway through that mass fill before it was cancelled by this government and the review implemented. We were halfway along the track of getting this done, yet here we are.

As I have always said, I am agnostic in which direction we go. I want sand on our beaches and I want a long-term solution in place—of course, after the Labor Party tore up the contract and stopped the long-term solution that was already in place—and I want my community to participate in this process fully to ensure that we do get the right outcome. I encourage everybody to jump onto the YourSAy website at yoursay.sa.gov.au/abmr-shortlist for the Adelaide Beach Management Review and to complete that survey to the best of their abilities because it is important. The responses for that survey close on 15 October at 5pm.

The options need to be viable, they have to be legitimate and they have to be real. Given how few options have actually been put on the table, and the fact that we already knew and have considered these options previously, you would have thought at the very least that there would have been some new science here, that there would have been some high-level determination of whether any of these options are actually viable, to determine if a sand source was going to be available—yet here we are.

The longer this process takes, the more our beaches deteriorate, and this is quite clearly at the hands of this Labor government.

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