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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-04-07 Daily Xml
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OLYMPIC DAM

The Hon. M. PARNELL (15:16): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Industrial Relations, representing the Premier, a question about the Olympic Dam expansion.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M. PARNELL: The BHP Billiton response to the 4,000 submissions to its Olympic Dam expansion environmental impact statement was completed and handed to the government many months ago. This is a document known as the supplementary EIS. On Tuesday, the Premier stated that the supplementary EIS will be released in the near future, after which the formal assessment of the project can begin. The Premier also reminded us that this is the most important economic development project South Australia has ever seen.

As members will recall, back in 2009 the Premier was forced, by a pending vote in the Legislative Council, to announce a six-week extension to the public comment period on the original EIS. That document, as members would remember, was the biggest document ever produced in South Australia: it weighs 16 kilograms and runs to many thousands of pages. Yet, despite its size, the EIS was notably deficient in relation to many key issues, not the least of which was the question of electricity supply, tailings management and mine rehabilitation.

The opportunity for members of the public to formally comment on the development approval for this project has now passed. According to the Development Act, it is all over as far as the public is concerned, with the only stage left being government approval—in this case commonwealth, state and Northern Territory government approval. Government agencies, on the other hand, have had months to evaluate BHP Billiton's response to their concerns.

The recent practice of the state government in relation to major projects has been to release the supplementary EIS at the same time that it releases its own assessment report and also on the same day that the Governor grants final approval under the Development Act, and that is the process that was followed in relation to Buckland Park, the Port Stanvac desalination plant, and many others. The decision is made the same day the documents are released. My questions are:

1. Can the Premier assure the people of South Australia that there will not be any state government approval until the community has had time to assess and evaluate BHP Billiton's response to the 4,000 submissions?

2. Will the Premier commit to establishing a formal process whereby interested South Australian businesses, scientists, groups and individuals can provide feedback to the government on the supplementary EIS that will be taken into account before a final decision is made?

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN (Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for Gambling) (15:19): I thank the Hon. Mr Parnell for his questions, and I will refer them to the Premier, the minister assisting with Olympic Dam or the Minister for Mineral Resources Development. I will send them to the Premier and I am sure they will be referred, if necessary, to the appropriate person.

It is important to make the point that the proposed Olympic Dam expansion project is one that will have received probably the greatest public scrutiny, with people considering its merits and ensuring that it meets all the appropriate guidelines, environmental standards, and so on; more so than any other project probably in the history of the state. It is certainly, as the honourable member indicated, and as the Premier said—and I am sure we all acknowledge—an incredibly important project for the economic future of the state.

I think the company has been through a lot of processes, as is appropriate, to ensure that all the standards are met. The environmental standards are certainly an important part of that, and I am sure that health and safety in the work setting and other matters will be considered as well. I think there will be a lot of public scrutiny of this project over time before it does actually get to the final approval stage. I will refer those questions to the Premier in another place.

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