HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Member Index
Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-02-24 Daily Xml
Contents
Pdf Xml

Goyder Institute Climate Projections

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (15:01): My question is to the Minister for Water and the River Murray. Will the minister inform the chamber about the recent climate projections released by the Goyder Institute and the impact these will have on the state's water planning?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (15:01): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. On Tuesday 17 February I had the pleasure of opening the Goyder Institute's Annual Water Conference at the University of Adelaide. I believe the Hon. Michelle Lensink was in the audience as well. I forgot to acknowledge you on the morning and I acknowledge you now.

As most in this place will know, the Goyder Institute for Water Research was established in 2010 to tackle the complex issues of long-term water security for our state with high quality independent science. The institute is a partnership between the South Australian government, the CSIRO, Flinders University, University of Adelaide, and University of South Australia.

To coincide with this annual conference, the Goyder Institute released the results of its five-year SA Climate Ready research. SA Climate Ready is the culmination of research and analysis of multiple climate change models spanning a five-year period. The project, undertaken by a group of world leading scientists, led by Dr Simon Beecham, who heads the School of Natural and Built Environments at the University of South Australia, has delivered the most accurate data available about our future climate.

The results are quite sobering. It predicts, among other things, up to 50 per cent reduction in the annual flows into our largest reservoir within the next 100 years if we continue on our current systems and projections. This is what the science tells us and, according to the experts, the South Australia Climate Ready results are very reliable. But, unlike the federal government, we will not put our head in the sand and ignore the science that is presented to us.

Instead we are taking action and continuing to lead the nation on addressing climate change. This data will be invaluable in the development of our state's adaptation strategies. It will be used to assess the implications on water security at the scale of individual rainfall stations. It is precisely this regional focus that will enable us to plan for local needs and refine our regional adaptation plans.

It will also ensure that future infrastructure investment such as transport, roads and bridges will withstand projected estimates of rainfall and temperature, and that they are indeed being built in the right places. The data will help us assess anticipated changes in extreme heat and fire risk which will inform planning for South Australia's emergency, health and social services sectors.

But, importantly, these findings reinforce the government's water security plan that has resulted in a diversification of the city's water resources to also include stormwater and wastewater. And they confirm the government's foresight in investing in the desalination plant as part of this mix for South Australia's future water security. As Dr Simon Beecham was quoted as saying on 891 on 17 February:

…the desalination plant is a very important piece of infrastructure that helps ensure that Adelaide has a reliable supply even during extreme conditions and droughts in particular…it's a very, very good safety measure particularly for droughts.

And yet, the opposition's only contribution has been to quibble about whether we should have built a 50 or a 100 gigalitre desal plant. We should not be surprised, of course. Those opposite are quite willing to take second best for our state. They are very quick to claim credit for taking a very second-rate approach to providing infrastructure for our state. All they are concerned about is taking second best; that is not our way. They built the one-way expressway. They built half an expressway to the south. It was up to this Labor government—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The minister has the floor.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —to finish the job and build the second half and give a good piece of infrastructure to the people of the south. As the member for MacKillop has so eloquently put it in the past, 'Drive in the Mazda', and accept a second-rate deal on the Murray-Darling Basin. That is their plan: second-rate deals for South Australia, second-rate infrastructure for South Australia.

We fought for a plan which will ensure the health of the basin long into future. Surely it is time to accept that a 100 gigalitre desalination plant gives us substantial water security at a time of considerable climate uncertainty. Thanks to our policy, South Australia is well placed to respond to future climate change challenges.

As a government we have and we will continue to base our decisions on sound scientific evidence, such as the Goyder Institute SA's Climate Ready research and on what is the best long-term interest for our state. As Dr Beecham added in his interview on 891:

…the climate science is very well understood in South Australia and in my view better understood here than anywhere else in Australia.

It is shame then that, in addition to a handful of irrational sceptics, we have an opposition that prefers to play political games instead of engaging in a serious debate about the future of our state. South Australia cannot afford the opposition's short-sighted, opportunistic mindset in this regard. We must act to mitigate and prepare for the effects of climate change on our way of life, on our environment and on the precious natural resources upon which our economy depends.

I take the opportunity to thank the Goyder Institute and its research partners—the CSIRO, our three great state universities (Adelaide, Flinders, and UniSA), SARDI and the Australia Water Quality Centre—for the Climate Ready SA research and the ongoing important work in this field, and I implore the opposition—I implore them—to get with the science, toss aside those federal science sceptics in Canberra and work with us on the future of our state.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT