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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-11-26 Daily Xml
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ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION (PULP MILLS) AMENDMENT BILL

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. M. PARNELL (19:50): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Environment Protection Act 1993. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. M. PARNELL (19:50): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill is a very simple measure aimed at protecting South Australia's largest freshwater lake from industrial pollution. Lake Bonney in the South-East is a coastal lake about 10 kilometres south of Millicent. At over 23 kilometres long it is one of Australia's largest freshwater lakes. The lake, like most of the South-East region, has been extensively altered since European settlement, particularly by the effects of drainage schemes and agricultural development schemes. For over 60 years large volumes of waste water from pulp and paper mills have adversely affected the health of the lake. Recent technological upgrades and modifications to the mills have significantly improved the quality of wastewater discharge into the lake. Monitoring by the Environment Protection Authority has revealed that the lake water quality has improved in recent years but there is still a long way to go.

A number of years ago the EPA produced a report entitled, 'Lake Bonney: past, present and possible future'. I want to quote a couple of paragraphs from that report, because it refers to the industrial pollution that my bill seeks to address. The report states:

In 1942, the first pulp and paper mill at Snuggery started to send large quantities of solid and dissolved waste into the lake. The 'Cellulose' and 'Apcel' pulp and paper mills near Millicent were established under state government Indenture Acts, at a time when the government of the day promoted this development to economically use the forest resources in the region. Importantly, the indentures allowed the mills to discharge waste water into drains that flow into Lake Bonney SE, as the government accepted legal responsibility for the waste mill effluent being released into the environment. Kimberly-Clark Australia, current owner of the Millicent and Tantanoola mills, has indemnity for the paper mill at Millicent to discharge into Lake Bonney SE until 2014.

This issue came onto the public agenda recently, although I recall that when I first came to South Australia in the late 1980s it was certainly on the agenda of conservation groups. It has come back onto the agenda most recently through some of the advocacy of the Nature Conservation Society of South Australia. On 29 October this year the Nature Conservation Society issued a media release, which states:

Lake Bonney is one of Australia's largest coastal lakes, located approximately 10 kilometres south of Millicent in the South-East of South Australia. This lake also represents one of the Australia's worst cases of long-term pollution due to decades of human misuse.

'The state of this lake is a symptom of the government's long-term neglect of the environment in South Australia', said Georgina Mollison, Scientific Officer for the Nature Conservation Society of SA.

For decades agricultural run-off, treated sewage and contaminated industrial waste have decimated the ecosystems of this lake, with the practice still being condoned by the government through an indenture agreement with pulp mill giant, Kimberly-Clark. This agreement will allow the company to use the lake as a dumping ground until 2014. The society hopes that the confronting pictures of Lake Bonney presented in Channel 9's A Current Affair will prompt the public to push for a full-scale clean-up of the lake, including a review of the current indenture agreement.

This lake is becoming increasingly important as a drought refuge for the animals of the region due to the ongoing and rapid destruction and loss of natural habitats in the South-East. This lake can and must be saved, but it will require the state government to make a stand against this type of pollution in South Australia while also providing significant funding for a full-scale clean-up and restoration of the lake.

As an environmental lawyer, back in 1992 and 1993 I was involved in the introduction of the Environment Protection Act into South Australia in my capacity as campaign coordinator for the Australian Conservation Foundation. That act included some very curious provisions, which did not mean a whole lot to me at the time, but their importance is increasingly apparent.

What the Environment Protection Act said was that some older acts—namely, one from 1958 and one from 1964—prevailed over the 1993 Environment Protection Act. The 1964 act is entitled the Pulp and Paper Mill (Hundreds of Mayurra and Hindmarsh) Act 1964. I will read section 6 of that act, because that is the section that overrides our current Environment Protection Act. The section reads:

The Company or any other person or authority shall not be liable in any way for discharging effluent from the mill into a drain in accordance with the Indenture or for the flow of such effluent from any one drain directly or indirectly into any other drain or into Lake Bonney or the sea or for any consequences of such discharge or flow or for discharging smoke, dust or gas from the mill into the atmosphere or for creating noise or odours or for any alleged consequences of such discharge, flow or creation if such discharge flow or creation or such consequences is or are reasonably necessary for the efficient operation of the works of the Company and not due to negligence on the part of the Company, its servants or agents.

The things that members should take from that are that, first of all, the standard of parliamentary drafting has improved a great deal. I do not think there is a comma in that whole sentence. But the crux of it is that the company can pollute as much as it wants and will not be liable for any of the results.

It seems to me that that provision is simply not good enough when we have this large lake continuing to be polluted and the indenture having another six years yet to run. So, the effect of my bill is very simple: it amends the Environment Protection Act, it amends that section of the act that exempts these pulp mills from the operations of South Australia's general pollution laws, and it brings the pulp mills back into the fold. It requires them to comply with the same pollution laws as every other industrial operation in the state. I commend the bill to the council.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. B.V. Finnigan.

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