The Big Water Debate
Thursday 11 February
Jointly presented by the Water Action Coalition and The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre
Back to registration page AUDIO recording available here (mp3 format 36MB)
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Photographs courtesy Fernando M Goncalves
| Time | Program | |
| 5.30pm | Doors open: Allan Scott Auditorium, Hawke Building, UniSA City West campus | |
| 6.00pm | Welcome, acknowledgements: Richard Watson, Water Action Coalition | |
| Kaurna Welcome from Auntie Cherie Watkins | ||
| Introduction to debate and keynote speaker: Moderator - Mike Smithson | ||
| 6.05pm |
The truth and lies about water
politics:
(Notes from presentation - pdf format) Professor Ian Lowe AO, President, Australian Conservation Foundation (presentation - pdf format) |
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| 6.20pm | Water survey results: New Focus - Craig Frost (presentation - pdf format) | |
| 6.23pm | Debating Panels | |
| Legislative Council Panel will debate first, then the Government and Liberal Panels will take turns | ||
| Government Panel | ||
| Minister for Environment and Conservation, representing the Premier: Hon Jay Weatherill MP | ||
| Independent Commissioner for Water Security: Robyn McLeod | ||
| Liberal Party Panel | ||
| Shadow Minister for Water Security: Mitch Williams MP | ||
| Shadow Minister for River Murray: Adrian Pederick MP | ||
| Shadow Minister for Environment: Hon Michelle Lensink MLC | ||
| Legislative Council Panel (minor parties and independents) | ||
| Greens SA: Mark Parnell MLC | ||
| Family First Party: Robert Brokenshire MLC | ||
| Independent: David Winderlich MLC | ||
| 6.50pm | Questions from the audience | |
| 7.15pm | Closing remarks from Keynote speaker and Panels | |
| 7.25pm | "Sold Down the River" Steve Foster | |
| Closing remarks: John Caldecott, Water Action Coalition | ||
| 7.30pm | Close of debate |
Photograph courtesy Fernando M Goncalves
Presenters
Hon Jay Weatherill MP
Jay Weatherill is the South Australian Minister for Environment and
Conservation, Early Childhood Development, Aboriginal Affairs and
Reconciliation, and Minister Assisting the Premier in Cabinet Business and
Public Sector Management.
Jay was born and educated in Adelaide's western suburbs, completing his secondary education at Henley High School.
He is a lawyer with an economics degree and established his own law firm in 1995, practicing until he was elected as the Member for Cheltenham in 2002.
He has held a range of portfolios including Families and Communities, Housing, Ageing, Disability, Urban Development and Planning, Administrative Services, Local Government and Gambling.
Jay and his wife Melissa have two young daughters, Lucinda and Alice.
Robyn McLeod
Robyn
McLeod is South Australia's first Independent Commissioner for Water
Security.
Robyn is responsible for leading the development of innovative policy solutions across Government to ensure the long-term future of South Australia's water supplies to meet the State's economic, environmental and social needs.
Her first priority has been to successfully develop and launch Water for Good, a plan to ensure South Australia's water future to 2050. Water for Good provides 94 actions to diversify South Australia's water sources, improve water conservation and efficiency, and modernise the water industry.
With an extensive background in water management and public policy for the last 20 years, Robyn has a wealth of experience and knowledge in water issues throughout Australia and overseas and the challenges we face in the future to secure water availability.
Mitch Williams MP
Mitch was elected to the South Australian Parliament at the 1997
election.
As Shadow Minister for Water Security, Mitch believes that water is one the most, if not the single most important issue facing South Australia. He has a plan of action to end the 8 years of neglect that the River Murray, and water policy in general, has suffered under the Rann Labor Government.
Mitch knows that water must be the first priority of a Liberal Government and that is why he is a strong advocate of the Liberal Party's policy to recycle at least 50 per cent of the stormwater currently going out to sea, which will help reduce our reliance on the River Murray.
Mitch has been a farmer for most of his working life, and has a first-hand understanding of running a business in a rural and regional community.
Mitch is also working hard to ensure that the lack of support by the Rann Government for country health and country roads is corrected, and that the electorate of MacKillop is given its fair share of funding from the State Government.
Adrian Pederick MP
Elected to the House of Assembly in 2006, and elevated to the Shadow
Cabinet in 2008, Adrian relishes the opportunity to represent farmers,
fisherman and foresters as well as the entire community of Hammond.
As Shadow Minister for the River Murray, Adrian believes the plight of the river is the most important issue facing South Australia. He believes the river has suffered serious neglect during the eight years of the Rann Labor Government.
He has taken a leading role in the fight against the government's proposals to construct a temporary weir at Wellington and inundate the Lower Lakes with seawater. He sees the proposals as disastrous short-term solutions to a nation-wide water crisis that is largely the result of gross mismanagement and believes a freshwater solution for the river and lakes must be found.
Since becoming the Member for Hammond, Adrian has had a deep involvement with community organisations around an electorate that takes in most of the lower reaches of the river and lakes and the Southern Mallee.
Adrian, his wife Sally, and two young sons Mack and Angus reside on the family farm at Coomandook, where Adrian managed a dryland and grazing enterprise for 14 years.
Hon Michelle Lensink MLC
Michelle Lensink entered parliament in 2003 and currently holds the
challenging portfolios of Environment and Conservation, Sustainability and
Climate Change, the Status for Women and Youth as well as being the Deputy
Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council.
Her interests in innovative water conservation saw her participate in the 2007 Cleantech and Water Trade Mission to Israel organised by the Australia Israel chamber of Commerce. She is responsible for instigating the inquiry into the potential impacts on desalination plants through the Environment, Resources and Development Committee of the Parliament, which has now reported on both the Stanvac site and the Point Lowly proposal.
Her former employment includes being a Repat physiotherapist, policy researcher to federal MP Christopher Pyne, Minister Adviser to Hon Robert Lawson QC and Executive Officer, Aged Care Association of Australia, SA (formerly ANHECA. She has an MBA form the University of Adelaide.
In her spare time she is a Trees for Life volunteer grower for a private landholder who is revegetating a site at Emu Bay, Kangaroo Island.
Mark Parnell MLC
Mark Parnell was elected in 2006 as the first Greens' Member of the
Legislative Council. In his 4 years in State Parliament, Mark has championed
the cause for reform in water law and policy to ensure that we have access
to water that "doesn't cost the Earth". In 2008, Mark commissioned an
independent study into water management that showed that Adelaide could have
water security without expensive and energy-hungry desalination and without
ongoing reliance on the ailing River Murray.
In Parliament, Mark was the chairperson of the Select Committee into SA Water and has also introduced legislation to prioritise water conservation over water profits. As a member of the Environment Resources & Development Committee, Mark was also influential in Reports on desalination at Port Stanvac and Point Lowly.
Before Parliament, Mark spent 16 years working in the non-profit conservation sector for organisations including the Environmental Defenders' Office, the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Wilderness Society and the Conservation Council of SA. Mark is admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Courts of South Australia and Victoria and also has degrees in Commerce and Regional & Urban Planning.
Robert Brokenshire MLC
Mr Brokenshire has had many years experience in parliament having
previously been a Government and Shadow Minister in the House of Assembly.
Robert is committed to the values of the Family First Party and was appointed to the Upper House following the retirement of Hon Andrew Evans. He is enjoying his return to Parliament, taking up an independent watchdog role to hold the government accountable to ensure that people are put first before politics and power.
Rob Brokenshire has championed the River Murray, the Lower Lakes and stormwater harvesting since his return to State Parliament as an Upper House MP. His first priority since returning in July 2008 was to take the politicking out of the one issue crucial to the State's future, campaigning for increased stormwater harvesting and a proper, comprehensive handover of the River Murray to a truly independent authority free from states' interference.
From the Mt Compass area, Robert is a dairy farmer with a passion for families and communities and is determined to make a difference in State Politics. He is married with three beautiful children.
David Winderlich MLC
If you can't manage water you can't manage South Australia - that has
been David's catchcry since entering parliament. David has backed this
commitment with practical action across South Australia. He helped organised
a coalition of community groups, such as the River Lakes and Coorong Action
Group with Senator Xenophon, the Greens and the Liberals to fight for the
Murray.
He has organised bus tours of the Lower Lakes so Adelaide people could meet with locals and see the situation in the Lower Lakes for themselves.
Recently David went to Menindee Lakes with Professor Diane Bell to help build pressure for floodwaters to be released into the Murray. He also bussed Adelaide people to Grieger's Sand Bar Rally at Swan Reach to show solidarity between people in the city and the country.
David has raised funds for Murray communities struggling with the effects of a lack of water and called for compensation for small irrigators who suffer losses because water they have relied on is diverted to upstream irrigators, urban populations or to the environment.
David has highlighted the lack of access to safe drinking water in remote townships in South Australia and campaigned against the digging of deep drains that threaten the Parrakie wetlands in the State's south east.
David has been a vocal opponent of Government plans to dramatically boost our population and increase our reliance on unsustainable development and opposes the location of Desalination Plants at Port Stanvac and Point Lowly.
Moderator
Mike Smithson is a political reporter and presenter for
Seven News in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. He also writes for the
Sunday Mail as a weekly political columnist and can be heard on Adelaide
radio station FIVEaa discussing political events with Leon Byner.
Smithson started his career at Seven in Adelaide and has remained there. He moved to Melbourne to become Seven's chief police reporter for a short time. He has previously been brief host of Today Tonight Adelaide and European Correspondent.
He married the sister of channel seven presenter John Riddell, and remains in Adelaide with two children.
He was promoted to co-news presenter on weekends in the 1980s.
Some of his biggest reporting stories have included the infamous Skase Chase, the 2000 Summer Olympics and the War on Terror in Afghanistan.
In 2007, Smithson won 3 awards at the SA Media Awards: the inaugural award for Commentary, Analysis, Opinion & Critique for his work with the Sunday Mail, Best TV news report and the prestigious title of Journalist of the Year.
Steve Foster, singer/songwriter
Steve Foster, Adelaide's own international award winning songwriter, was
born in Murray Bridge.
His backyard was the water, between Murray Bridge and the Coorong, and he spent many hours sailing his old whale boat up and down the river.
He feels passionately about the plight of the river and the Lower Lakes, and wrote his song "Sold Down the River" in response to this.
Steve co wrote with G. Goble, the hit "Forever Blue" for John Farnham and Little River Band, that was their biggest selling song in Europe. He has been a professional musician since the early 70's when he toured Australia with Brian Cadd & the Bootleg Family.
While the views presented by speakers within the Hawke Centre public program are their own and are not necessarily those of either the University of South Australia or The Hawke Centre, they are presented in the interest of open debate and discussion in the community and reflect our themes of: strengthening our democracy - valuing our diversity - and building our future.