MURRAY RIVER WATER ALLOCATIONS

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD (Chaffey—Minister for the River Murray, Minister for Water Security, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Small Business, Minister Assisting the Minister for Industry and Trade) (14:18): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD: Today I rise to update the house on the River Murray water resources situation. As the Premier indicated earlier, we monitor this on a regular basis and advise the house and irrigators as soon as practical when situations change. Based on the latest assessment from the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, I have announced today that River Murray water allocations for 2007-08 water year will increase to at least 22 per cent from 1 December 2007.

The Murray-Darling Basin Commission's End of October 2007 Water Resource Assessment reports an increase in available water across the Murray-Darling Basin because of three factors:

inflows to the River Murray system in October 2007 were slightly higher than previously forecast;

slightly more water has been released into the system from the Snowy Mountains Scheme;

the commission's forecast for minimum inflows in November 2007 has improved as a consequence of recent rain across the basin from 10 millimetres to 100 millimetres in certain areas.

Allocation increases in South Australia are now possible because the total volume of water available for diversion across the basin has exceeded 1,500 gigalitres. This target was a key threshold in determining South Australia's share of water available for irrigation and dilution flows under the revised water sharing arrangements agreed to by the Murray-Darling Basin states and the commonwealth earlier this year.

The commission advises that early rainfall in November has improved the minimum inflows expected in November, and so far there is sufficient improvement to support an increase in allocations to at least 22 per cent from the beginning of December. Total available water will again be reviewed at the beginning of December, once we have the commission's final assessment of the November inflows. If further rainfall and inflows are received in the basin before the end of November, allocations will be updated. While this increase will be welcomed by irrigators, it is still not enough to keep all permanent plantings alive and is well below the 60 per cent irrigators received in the 2006-07 water year.

Conditions are expected to be hot and dry over summer, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting only a 45 to 55 per cent chance of receiving above average rainfall before January 2008, while there is a 65 to 70 per cent chance of temperatures being hotter than normal. Murray-Darling Basin storages peaked at 23 per cent of capacity during October and are currently at 22 per cent. However, flow to South Australia has been increased marginally to 3,400 megalitres per day to help reduce salinity impacts and the likelihood of algal blooms occurring. We are very much micro-managing the river at this particular time.

Adelaide consumers are still tracking well against the target consumption line for 2007-08, and domestic water restrictions remain unchanged. The situation in the Murray-Darling Basin is still extremely serious, and consistent above average rainfall is needed to break the continued widespread drought.