Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak today on a great water-saving project within the electorate of Hindmarsh that was announced as part of the budget on Tuesday night—the Glenelg to Adelaide water-recycling project. The project comprises expanding the Glenelg Wastewater Treatment Plant and establishing a 30-kilometre pipeline network, which will be laid from the plant, past the Adelaide Airport, through the electorate of Hindmarsh, into the city centre and on to North Adelaide. This will free up stressed groundwater resources and the much stressed River Murray water that is now used to water our parklands and supply industry and developments in the city.

I recall being lobbied in the early time of my candidature for Hindmarsh, in 1997, by the West Torrens City Council. They wanted to see this project come to fruition—in fact it was their idea. I would like to congratulate John Trainer, the current Mayor of West Torrens, and the outgoing CEO, Trevor Starr, who lobbied way back in 1997 and 1998 for this project and sought my support. This was the beginning of a great campaign to secure the future water supplies for the western suburbs of Adelaide.

I held many meetings with community groups. I had meetings with the state minister for water and the then Labor shadow minister for water, Anthony Albanese, and tried to speak to the then federal minister—because this pipeline was a revolutionary idea. It was a project that would not only save water but also protect the Gulf of St Vincent by reducing the discharge of nutrients into the gulf by 50 per cent. On the face of it, pumping cleaned, useable water out to sea seemed pretty strange and wasteful when we were in a situation, as we are now, with water being in such demand. As water is becoming increasingly scarce and valuable, it should be judged on its quality and reused as much as possible.

Adelaide’s water supplies need to be protected. The streets of Hindmarsh remain very dry, with water becoming a resource that many of us use ever so sparingly. The pipeline could potentially return as much as one billion litres of high-quality recycled water to irrigate the Adelaide parklands every year. With this in mind, the project seemed so logical and was only hampered by financial constraints. But I am pleased to say that, when the Rudd Labor government came to office, important projects such as this pipeline were completely supported.

We wasted 10 precious years, and the development of water-saving initiatives that are so vital to the further prosperity of our nation suffered. Water is a national priority for the Rudd Labor government and will continue to be for years to come. This is a government that I am proud to be a part of and one that is planing for the future prosperity of our nation.