Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise again in this place to speak about issues in relation to the Lower Lakes in my electorate of Mayo, and in particular the issue of water for the communities of Point Sturt and Hindmarsh Island. This is an issue I have raised in this place on numerous occasions. I wish to update the House on the situation and the ongoing crisis for these communities, who seek a freshwater supply and ask for their water security to be met by the state government, which is singularly failing in this area, particularly the National Party minister, Karlene Maywald, who either does not understand the issue or is simply overwhelmed by the gravity of the situation. What is happening is that Point Sturt, which is on the Lower Lakes, just near the Goolwa Channel, has been excluded from a pipeline which is being built from higher up in the Murray to supply these communities who can no longer access water from the Lower Lakes for obvious reasons—due to the shortage and the quality of the water now in the lakes.

What has happened is that for some reason these communities have been left off the pipeline, even though it is only a small additional cost for the state government to include them. We have seen buck passing going on from the state minister to the federal minister, Senator Wong. I wrote to the state minister, Karlene Maywald, on 19 February this year. Six months later I was fortunate enough to get a reply, which was basically a standard letter. At the same time, members of the community down there received a very similar reply. It basically says: ‘Well, it’s a bit of bad luck. We might have a look at it. What you can do to solve the situation is pay $100,000 each to connect yourself to the SA Water main system.’ This is just ridiculous. The minister, who calls herself the Minister for Water Security, has no concept of how difficult the situation is. However, Minister Wong seems to have some sort of idea. I congratulate her on at least saying in a radio interview a couple of weeks ago that she will certainly look at this, after one of the members of the community Mr Peter Dockey rang into talkback with Senator Wong.

Senator Wong has said she will have a good look at it. I think it is time that we just clarified this for these people and spent the extra, I think, $3 million to extend this pipeline to the properties on Point Sturt. There are some 35 properties. It is not an enormous amount of people but that does not matter. That is not the point. Everyone should expect to have water security. For many years these people relied on water from the Lower Lakes and through no fault of their own they can no longer do so. I think the federal government can quickly solve the situation. I urge Senator Wong, as the minister, to take the responsibility. She said she would have a look at it. I have written to her and we are hopeful in the next few days and weeks that she will be able to do so.