Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I refer to Senator Faulkner’s answers to my questions relating to stormwater harvesting. The issue of stormwater harvesting is vital to supplying the future water needs of Adelaide. As we all know, the Murray-Darling crisis is arguably the greatest environmental challenge this nation has ever faced. The Coorong, an internationally listed environmental site, is being choked. The Lower Lakes, the lungs of the Murray, are gasping their last breath. This once great river, a lifeline to so many communities, is dying. It has been estimated that by 2020 Adelaide’s drinking water will exceed WHO guidelines for salinity on two days out of five if nothing is done to control salinity in the River Murray.

Currently, in an average year, the City of Adelaide depends on the River Murray for approximately 80 gigalitres of water. By contrast, the combined stormwater discharge of the Adelaide metropolitan area is approximately 80 gigalitres of the 170 gigalitres that are released into the ocean each year. I believe that this provides considerable opportunity for the use of stormwater, through aquifer storage and recovery technology, ASR, to relieve the demand for water from other sources. While the South Australian government is proposing a desalination plant that will produce 50 gigalitres a year at a cost of around $1.1 billion—and I note that there is a significant Commonwealth contribution for that—I believe that stormwater recycling will result in much greater gains for about a quarter of the cost. I do not suggest in any way that we should not have a desalination plant—I agree with Senator Faulkner that it is important to have that as a backup—but why aren’t we pursuing something that is as cost effective, as energy effective, as stormwater recycling? In that regard, I acknowledge the long-term support of the Greens with their advocacy for stormwater recycling.

The challenge, Mr Deputy President, is leadership. What Adelaide requires is leadership from the federal government to provide funding through local-state-federal government partnerships to develop a whole-of-Adelaide approach to stormwater recycling. I note that there are already two initiatives, started by the Howard government and continued by the current government, that are contributing to stormwater recycling in Adelaide. Senator Faulkner noted that the Waterproofing Northern Adelaide project, at a cost of $38 million, will be recycling 18 gigalitres of stormwater per annum by 2010. Meanwhile the Waterproofing Southern Adelaide project, at a cost of around $10 million, is similarly making contributions to stormwater recycling in and around the Onkaparinga River. However, there are so many more opportunities that need to be embraced through a joint local-state-federal government process. In the City of Marion, by using the airport site, a further 16 gigalitres of stormwater could be harvested. In the City of Wakefield, around the Gawler River, a further 20 gigalitres of water could be captured, recycled and injected into aquifers to offset the use of Murray water in the northern Adelaide plains.

In addition, there are numerous smaller projects in the range of one to two gigalitres, including along Port Road and the Cheltenham racecourse in the City of Sturt, that could be made possible if leadership were provided, funding made available, and an integrated strategy developed. And can I say about the Cheltenham racecourse site that I fundamentally disagree with the state government’s approach of using that area for housing when it could be used for recycling stormwater. With these opportunities in mind, I believe it is vital for the government to take steps to develop such joint initiatives for stormwater harvesting across the whole of Adelaide. It is this belief that was behind my question without notice and, while I thank the minister for his answer, I believe that much more can be done. We need federal leadership in stormwater harvesting just as we need federal leadership in saving the Murray. If we leave it just to the states, we see responses like the one from the Victorian government to the Murray crisis, which is to build a north-south pipeline that will take out a further 110 gigalitres of water and divert it to the City of Melbourne. Many would say that that is an act of environmental vandalism.

Alternatively we see state governments trying to spend big on energy-hungry projects such as desalination instead of harvesting what already runs down our streets. Metropolitan Adelaide and its plains have many sites with the unique alignment of watercourses to source water, aquifers to recharge and an ocean to discharge. It is the ideal site for strategic stormwater harvesting. In fact, Colin Pitman of the Salisbury council is acknowledged as a world leader. He is a hero when it comes to doing the right thing by harvesting our stormwater and we need to take heed of what he is doing and to expand that substantially. It is my hope that in the future the government will have made more progress in relation to the urgent need for funding and leadership for stormwater harvesting and, as a consequence, the minister’s answers will provide more hope for the River Murray and for the citizens of Adelaide.

Question agreed to.