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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-10-28 Daily Xml
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Question Time

TORRENS AQUEDUCT

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:23): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Urban Development and Planning a question about a parcel of land at Highbury, north of Nursery Way, known as the aqueduct land.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Members may be aware that the original open channel Torrens Aqueduct was constructed in the 1870s, delivering untreated bulk water from Kangaroo Creek reservoir to the Hope Valley reservoir. Following an extensive communication process in 2004-05 with all relevant stakeholders, a number of options to upgrade the means of maintaining a secure water supply to the Hope Valley reservoir were considered, with SA Water finally determining that a buried gravity pipeline laid in the confines of the River Torrens would best deliver the desired environmental, social and economic outcomes.

Construction of the pipeline commenced in 2007 and is now complete, and the disused aqueduct land has been transferred from SA Water to the control of the Minister for Urban Development and Planning. The minister announced in September a consultative group to consider the future management of the disused land.

In light of the formation of the committee, will the minister give an iron clad guarantee that the land will be kept in public hands and remain open space for the enjoyment and betterment of the local community; that the Rann Labor government will not seek to sell this piece of land; that the Rann Labor government will not seek to amend the River Torrens Linear Park Act in any way that would substantially alter the use of this land; that the community will be consulted on the use of the land prior to any decision being made about its future use; and that neither the minister's department nor any other government department is planning any form of future development that will alter the use of this land?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (14:25): Some guarantees were given by the government prior to the 2006 election. It gave that undertaking then, it has honoured it and it will continue to honour it. That land is for open space.

The deputy leader is correct in that there is an open space group chaired by my colleague the member for Newland, Tom Kenyon. The land is in his electorate. The mayor of Tea Tree Gully (Miriam Smith) is also a member of that group.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: What is your problem?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: As announced, the amendments that this government made to the River Torrens Linear Park Bill were to stop the sorts of things that happened before. By incorporating that land within the Linear Park bill the only way it can be disposed of is by a resolution carried by both houses of parliament. The reason we introduced that was that the previous government allowed the University of South Australia at Underdale to sell off its land, which meant that a significant proportion of Linear Park land on the River Torrens that would have gone right down to the centre of the river, and the river frontage at Underdale, would have been lost for use by the people of South Australia.

In fact, it has cost taxpayers something like $1.5 million that this government has had to spend to buy back that land and landscape it. This government intends to incorporate the aqueduct land into the Linear Park, and it will be covered by legislation that we enacted to stop the sort of situation that happened at Underdale from happening again. There will be iron-clad protection in relation to that aqueduct land.

A committee has been set up, as the deputy leader referred to, to look at that. My understanding is that some work needs to be done on that particular land. The land was fenced off, obviously to stop people going on to the area. A number of trees have grown in that area, many of them Mediterranean pine trees, and some are in a fairly dangerous condition. That is one of the issues that the committee has been looking at.

Using the Planning and Development Fund, there will need to be some investment on the land in that area so that it can be made more useable by the community, and that is very much the intention of the committee. It is the role of that committee to consult with the local community to hear their views. I can assure everyone that the government intends to honour the promise that it made in 2006. We have gone a long way towards doing that by incorporating it within the Linear Park—or we will be doing it.

The issue was that the land had to be transferred over from SA Water to the Department of Urban Development and Planning. From memory, that took place about mid-year. It has taken a long time for that transfer to take place. However, that enables the government to be able to incorporate it within the Linear Park.

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