Question to the Premier on social license for fracking

Mr FATCHEN: My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier accept that the Limestone Coast community believes there is no social licence for unconventional gas development in our region? With your leave, ma'am, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr FATCHEN: Hundreds of Limestone Coast residents made their opposition to fracking crystal clear last week at last week's community forum in Mount Gambier. Our community has consistently raised serious concerns about the risk to our underground water resources, prime agricultural land and the industries that underpin our regional economy. In fact, the government's own press release states that fracking is unlikely to pose significant risk to groundwater. But 'unlikely' is hardly reassuring for a community whose entire future depends on the security of our water resources.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: I thank the member for Mount Gambier for his question. I had the opportunity to meet with the member for Mount Gambier last Wednesday night, in advance of the government's policy announcement on Thursday, and I welcomed the opportunity to do so. The member for Mount Gambier asks astute and thoughtful questions regarding important subject matter on behalf of the electorate.

What I would say is this: the first thing is that we are only seeking to engage in the commencement of one of the most exhaustive substantial investigative processes that you can imagine when it comes to getting gas out of the ground in the South-East. Nobody—nobody—in this place would want, under any circumstances, to do harm to the critical things that make the South-East and the Limestone Coast the precious place that it is. We are fully cognisant, in the government, of the value and the importance of the water resource in the Limestone Coast, which is why it is this government that commenced a scientifically based review of the water allocation plan on the back of the advocacy of the local community in the Limestone Coast. We understand the value of the water.

We also understand and appreciate that this is not something to be played around with, which is why you've got to put the effort into the science. It's all about the science. I am not aware—and I am happy to stand corrected—of anybody in this place who is a hydrologist or an engineer to be able to speak about this authoritatively. What we do is we invest our confidence in the science and in the regulators whose job it is to assess it and carefully scrutinise it. We believe, as a government, that we are very fortunate in South Australia to have one of the best mining regulators anywhere in the world, which is why we have seen, for generations, mining conduct occurring in this state in a way that represents best practice, not just environmentally but also engagement with traditional owners as well. It's a process we take seriously, and that's the process we want to commence.

That's what the lifting of the moratorium does. It is not authorising Beach Energy or anybody else to go into the South-East and start mining; it is quite the opposite. It is a commencement of the process to do the regulatory and scientific work, which is set to occur in 2028 anyway. This is the point: it's set to occur in 2028 anyway, so why wouldn't we bring that opportunity forward?

As the member for Mount Gambier can attest to, we had the forum last Thursday night and I'm a big believer in showing up. We didn't make this decision in Adelaide and run in the other direction. We made this decision and went down to the South-East so they could look us in the eye and hear from us first, including the regulators themselves. I have to say, I was nothing but impressed with the response from the community at that forum, which was well represented, including people who advocate against the reform, as the member for MacKillop can attest to, and I think everyone engaged really civilly and thoughtfully. Absolutely people expressed some passion, but there was genuine interest, indeed intrigue, to understand what the process looks like. It is a great credit to the community of the Limestone Coast for the way they are engaged in the process.

We want that to be the beginning of it, that's all. If we get to a set of circumstances where, hypothetically, the moratorium is lifted now or, definitively, lifted in two years' time and that process ensues and hydrologists, countless experts and scientists determine that there is a risk to the aquifer, then it doesn't get approved because it is in no-one's interest to do that—it is in no-one's interest to do that. We just want to do the scientific work to get it right.

Fracture stimulation has been happening in South Australia for decades: over a thousand wells. Admittedly in a different place, but elsewhere, and, of course, there are critical water tables in other parts of our state, too, as those opposite will appreciate. For us, it seems incongruous to have one part of the state where we say fracture stimulation is okay but in another part where it's not. Let's do the science to actually find out the answer.