Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to discuss a matter of national importance concerning an iconic Australian town and the opal capital of the world, Coober Pedy. Coober Pedy has a population of approximately 2,000 people. It is located in the far north of South Australia, 850 kilometres north of Adelaide and 680 kilometres south of Alice Springs. Opal was first discovered in February 1915, and, in 1920, the official name of the town was chosen. The name Coober Pedy is an anglicisation of the Aboriginal term 'kupa piti', often translated as 'white man in a hole'. It's a name that speaks to the history of grit, complex issues, innovation, and the unique spirit required to work in the harsh South Australian outback. And what a history it has! Yet—and I don't say this lightly—if governments don't start taking the plight of this regional centre seriously, Coober Pedy could well just be history.

Today Coober Pedy stands not as a beacon of outback triumph but as a stark, unforgiving symbol of what happens when remote communities fall between the cracks. It is a portrait of high costs, declining services, community fatigue and bureaucratic abandonment. The people of Coober Pedy are some of the most resilient Australians I have ever met. They are a community that simply wants to get on with it—get on with rebuilding their local government systems and get on with teaching the next generation the invaluable skills of opal cutting, grading and mining. That is the soul of the town. But they're being tied up, not by their work ethic or passion but by government red tape and neglect. This is why I stand here demanding answers.

Last week in Coober Pedy, I took the pleasure to take this fight to Canberra, and I'm proud to be joined in this urgent call for action by a man who knows this region well, who understands the frustrations and who is absolutely committed to delivering a fair deal for the outback, the Liberal candidate for Stuart, Leon Stephens. Leon is not a man for a photo opp. He's committed to taking up Coober Pedy's fight and forcing a real plan for change—not another raft of reviews. Leon is right when he says that people here are dealing with something they do not deserve.

Earlier this month, the true cost of a state Labor government's unimaginable financial waste, namely the $498 million loss on hydrogen in Whyalla, was laid bare by the Auditor-General. It makes me sick to think of what a fraction of that cost could do in Coober Pedy for essential services, particularly power and water. A mere 10 per cent of that could have changed the lives of the entire community. Instead, it went to the Premier's pet project in Whyalla that has not even commenced. This is a disgrace. Leon Stephens and I are demanding a fair go for this hardworking town.

So where to from here? Well, we need plans, not promises. First, we are demanding a generally funded state and federal taskforce for Coober Pedy. This task force must deliver critically upgraded water and electricity infrastructure. The residents face constant failures, undrinkable water, ageing pipelines and crippling costs—three times more than what you'd pay in Adelaide. Attached to this must be transparency on costs and timelines, and the immediate, yet feasible, restoration of the elected local government in Coober Pedy. The council has been in administration since 2019. This community must have its voice back. There is no publicised plan for the financial exit from administration, and this uncertainty is splitting the community.

Second, we must provide funding tied to training and employment programs. The local industry is rich with knowledge. The best opal cutters in the world are right there ready to teach local youth about presentation and grading yet we are told that the government has refused to use the local TAFE. They are refusing to use the TAFE due to the outdated machinery. I will bet my last dollar that the pencil pushers in Adelaide that make that decision haven't even seen an opal mine in action. The very skills that define Coober Pedy are at risk of being lost. We need a review of this TAFE decision and proper pathways into trades, opal cutting, tourism operations and other local industry opportunities. We need to heed the miners who say they cannot afford the lose those skill sets.

Third, we must address isolation. We need to secure air services and upgrade the airport to maintain connectivity. We need targeted support for outback roads to keep station access viable and local pastoralists and businesses open. Fourth, we must strengthen volunteer and emergency services. We need clear recruitment pathways, incentives and dedicated funding to retain the central personnel for police, ambulance and MFS The shortage or blatant lack of essential services from aged care to dental care and child care is a failure of responsibility by all involved.

Fifth, we need a clear plan to hold the state government to account for the delays, particularly the financial plan to exit council administration and the water infrastructure strategy. The community must know the timelines and details. This has gone on for too long. Sixth is fairer costs for residents. Remote living should not equate to paying three times more for water or being subjected to utility practises deemed unjust by the ombudsman.

Coober Pedy shows us that when governments treat remote communities as after-thoughts, the social, economic and human consequences mount. This is a great town with a warm resilient soul, and I would hate for a series of bad decisions by a government to result in that great soul being stripped away. Regional Australia should not be the backyard for neglect. Coober Pedy deserves better. Remote communities deserve to know that they will not follow the same path as the town of Bindabee, which was closed by the state government in 2019. Regional communities and remote communities deserve to know that their contribution to this nation isn't just remembered, it is valued. Remote communities deserve to be able to continue their mining roots and share their skills with the world. Remote communities deserve educational facilities, places where young people learn to thrive, not just survive. Remote communities deserve real solutions—and not lip service and stop-throughs by pollies on their way to photo ops. The time for words is over. Someone needs to step in and deliver a clear pathway out of this situation. We need to show some empathy towards this community and get this problem solved quickly by our dual parties to support demands for action and recognise that investing in Coober Pedy is an investment in the unique spirit of our entire nation. The history of Coober Pedy should not end now.

Regional and remote neglect in South Australia is unfortunately nothing new. In September this year, I had the pleasure of listening to Hari Hara Priya Kannan, a data scientist for The Demographics Group, which presented to Regional Development South Australia on the some issues facing people in my electorate of Grey. As I expected, it was bleak. Regional SA plays an enormous role in the nation's economy, but the data presented confirm that regional growth is deeply unequal. We cannot tolerate a future where metropolitan SA thrives while the regions continue to struggle. We cannot tolerate a future where the areas that generate a quarter of the state's GRP are starved of the essential resources they need to prosper.

Our most critical challenge is a workforce crisis. We have an ageing population, and we face a threat in replacing the 173,000 workers expected to exit the regional labour market over the next decade. If we fail to solve this, $65 billion worth of identified regional investment in mining, industry and agriculture will stagnate. We must address the key drivers of population attraction, housing affordability and access to essential services including health and education.

I urge this government to look after all Australians, not just those in our cities. We need a targeted honest commitment to building infrastructure and housing, to unlock skills pathways and to deliver place based solutions that transform our regional and rural and remote towns like Coober Pedy from remote outposts into vibrant competitive centres of opportunity. South Australia's prosperity depends on it. Looking at these issues—regional inequality and the plight of Coober Pedy—back to back tells a tale. It tells a tale of state and federal governments out of touch with the country and out of touch with real hardworking Australians.