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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-03-05 Daily Xml
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Eyre Peninsula Desalination Plant

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (15:01): My question is to the Minister for Climate, Environment and Water. What is the minister's response to the Barngarla Aboriginal Corporation's opposition to SA Water's location of a desalination plant—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The question involves argument, sir, and is therefore out of order.

The SPEAKER: Very well. I think the matter that has been raised with me is that the form of the question might infringe standing order 97. I will give the member for Flinders the opportunity to recast the question.

Mr TELFER: Sir, thank you. Is the Minister for Climate, Environment and Water aware of the position of the Barngarla Aboriginal Corporation regarding SA Water's location of a desalination plant at Billy Lights Point at Port Lincoln and, if so, what is her response?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (15:02): Yes, I am aware, as is anyone who has read the paper, of the Barngarla Aboriginal Corporation's view on the location of Billy Lights Point as the location for a desalination plant. I have had a very productive meeting with the leadership of the corporation to discuss that.

This again is one of those challenging areas where there are multiple views about what the right outcome is, although I think everyone agrees—I hope everyone agrees—that we need a desalination plant for Eyre Peninsula. The last of the basins—there were about five that used to be able to be used for water, now there is one left—the scientists tell us is at serious risk of becoming saline from 2026, a risk level that becomes unacceptable for us to sustain, so we need to build a desalination plant.

There are views about the selection of Billy Lights Point that are not just from the local Aboriginal community but also from the people who have aquaculture businesses nearby. The good thing in South Australia is that we have the kind of legal and regulatory framework that means that SA Water can't simply say, 'We don't care about any of that, we're just doing it.' We actually have to go through a process in this state of having developers, even a government corporation like SA Water, prove that they will do no harm. While they have gone through a selection process that gives them enormous comfort that this won't do harm, they will now have to demonstrate that through the development approval process. Part of that is to ensure that any Aboriginal cultural heritage that is there is properly addressed.

One of the reasons I wanted to have that meeting—I have had meetings with the leadership previously and discussions on other issues, but this was particularly targeted to Billy Lights Point—was that, despite the concern that has long been expressed by the corporation about that site, we would nonetheless like to see SA Water and the corporation being able to engage on it so that they are able to talk about what is there, so that when SA Water puts in its proposal it does so in a way that seeks to completely avoid doing any harm to the cultural heritage. That is the process that is occurring at the moment. Simultaneously, of course, there are the environmental concerns that have been raised about salinity. The scientists have been pretty clear in the peer reviewed research that has been done that the variation in salinity will be at background level, so no greater than the normal level, but that will be tested, and it will be tested not only through the development approval process but also by the EPA.

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