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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-07-06 Daily Xml
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POINT LOWLY

The Hon. M. PARNELL (15:50): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Regional Development a question about Point Lowly.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M. PARNELL: The extraordinary giant Australian cuttlefish aggregation, which is just metres off the beach at Point Lowly near Whyalla—an amazing annual event which was recently given worldwide prominence in a David Attenborough wildlife documentary—continues to be under threat from a wide variety of sources. In what should be of great concern to all South Australians, local diver and long-time observer of the cuttlefish, Tony Bramley, said on ABC radio recently that cuttlefish numbers this year are significantly lower than usual. Adelaide University marine biologist Bronwyn Gillanders says that their 'live fast and die young life history strategy' makes this species particularly vulnerable to threats from industrial development.

We know that Santos is currently fighting the EPA in the ERD Court about a long-term hydrocarbon leak from their Point Lowly refinery—a leak that the EPA says has reached the shoreline. However, the government is continuing to advocate for a range of other industrial projects nearby, including a second refinery and a large new jetty transporting potentially toxic minerals over the top of the cuttlefish breeding grounds. Also, we have BHP Billiton ignoring the thousands of submissions opposing the location of their massive desalination plant for the Olympic Dam expansion and forging ahead with their original plan to locate it off one of the most sensitive parts of our marine environment.

It is not surprising that the federal Liberal member for Grey (Rowan Ramsey) has stated recently that he is still not convinced that Point Lowly is the best spot for BHP Billiton's desalination plant. Perhaps he was disturbed by his Liberal colleague opposition leader Isobel Redmond's recent claim on 20 June on ABC radio when she said she is now satisfied that the plant will not cause damage to the cuttlefish population, saying the outfall pipe for the salty brine is 'so much further and so much deeper, it's like three kilometres at least back upstream, as it were, to the nearest cuttlefish, and 10 kilometres to the main cuttlefish breeding grounds'.

This curious claim is at complete odds with what BHP Billiton—Uranium president, Dean Dalla Valle is saying, who stated in May that extending the pipe a further 200 metres out to sea would ensure that it will be 'up to 800 metres from the nearest point of cuttlefish breeding grounds'.

In addition to these threats, Tony Bramley has said that fishing should be banned in the surrounding area until the cause for this year's significant decline is known. If the government does not get the right protection in place, the future of the cuttlefish will indeed be bleak. My questions of the minister are:

1. What does the government believe has caused the significant decline in the numbers of cuttlefish in this year's aggregation?

2. Is the government concerned about it and, if so, what is its response?

3. How far exactly is the BHP Billiton desalination plant outlet pipe from the breeding grounds of the cuttlefish? Does the government agree with the opposition leader Isobel Redmond that it is between three and 10 kilometres away?

4. Does the government intend to include the whole of the cuttlefish breeding grounds off Point Lowly in marine park no-take zones?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Public Sector Management, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for Gambling) (15:54): I thank the honourable member for his questions. Clearly, they are outside the responsibility of the Minister for Regional Development. They largely rest with the Minister for Urban Development and Planning, and I think also the Minister for Infrastructure and the Minister for Environment and the EPA. All have certain responsibilities in respect to a number of the different issues that the honourable member has raised. I can only comment in a very general sense, but the projects that have been planned for the Port Bonython/Port Lowly area—each and every one of those—must go through a very rigorous assessment, not just in terms of the business study and the impact and capabilities but also the environmental impacts.

I visited Port Lowly quite recently and went right around the area where a number of projects are planned to occur, and I am confident of the sorts of procedures that are being put in place and the rigorous requirements to ensure that environmental impacts are assessed accurately to ensure that where there are problems associated with negative impacts they have to be rectified before a project can proceed. As I said, most of the details around the length of outlet pipes, and such like, are outside my purview. As I said, they are matters for a number of other ministers in another place.

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