Ian Gilfillan: Australian Democrats in the SA Parliament

	Extract from Hansard Legislative Council 16 May 2001

Ian Gilfillan Australian Democrats Member of the Legislative Council		Parliament Index 2001 Autumn Sitting Index Browse by Subject Search all Democrats material About the SA Parliament Hansard on line

The Hon. IAN GILFILLAN: I wish to use my time today to highlight what I think is a gross example of injustice and suffering. I refer to a couple who have been market gardening in Edillilie on the West Coast. This case has received some publicity, but it needs a lot more publicity and a lot more analysis. Arnold and Joyce Meyer have made a living selling vegetables grown on their property in a glasshouse using on-site dam water. In the latter part of last year, they realised that their plants were not only not thriving but dying, and, in fact, they did so through the application of what proved to be contaminated water from dams on the property, which have now almost irrefutably been shown to have been contaminated by chemical trespass: the flow of very powerful chemicals, sulfonylurea being the principal one, from a neighbouring property or properties.

Apart from the human suffering that they have endured, there is the extraordinary and inexcusable suffering that they have experienced in obtaining a proper reaction from, in the first instance, PIRSA, and, following on from that, getting their water tested and getting people to come to the property to take this matter seriously. The first indication of this was in October last year when Arnold Meyer triggered off what he hoped would be some sense of procedure to get some answers and some justice. I checked today, and he still has not had confirmation from the EPA or the body that is doing the final testing to enable his family to take action to get the compensation they are looking for. Not only should they be entitled to compensation but this highlights the desperate need for proper legislation of chemical trespass in South Australia.

I have been agitating for this for some time. It is had a lot of interest and support in various ways from the Farmers Federation. The issues of health and the right to farm with the use of chemicals are involved, but this is a classic case where, because of procrastination and either disinterest or inaction by this government, this couple have had to be martyrs to show how deficient the current situation is. We do not have in South Australia legislation to deal with chemical trespass.

This is in stark contrast to the US and other states of Australia including Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and Western Australia. Queensland has better legislation than we have. But the plot thickens almost to the point of incomprehension when it is known that the Minister for Primary Industries has had in his hand since October 1998 a green paper recommending the following action:

That new legislation will make it an offence to cause damage by agricultural chemical application to plants, animals or land outside the target area on another person's property or public lands.

There are many very worthwhile observations in this green paper. As my research officer said, it is a fast fading green paper. It has obviously not been treated with anything like the attention that it should have received. Surely, now in the light of the example of the tragedy that has befallen the Meyer family, this is the time to take action immediately and not leave it so that more people will suffer the penalty of our not having proper controls to deal with this very dangerous form of chemical trespass by water flow or spray or whatever way it comes onto a property.

The only way that this couple can reuse their land is to clean out 300 to 400 cubic metres of soil. They will have to flush out a dam which will quite likely expose other landowners to problems further downstream. It is an absolute calamity, and the fact that the minister has shown such indifference and the department has been so dilatory is an absolute disgrace in terms of the situation in South Australia, and it has been shown up in this case. I can only ask and hope that they will be the last martyrs to suffer from this injustice.