Grievance Debate

MURRAY RIVER IRRIGATORS

Mr VENNING (Schubert) (15:24): Subsequent to the Premier's ministerial statement today in the house, about drought faced by irrigators, and also by the Minister for the River Murray (Hon. K.A. Maywald) entitled River Murray Water Allocations, I rise today to talk about a serious issue impacting on farmers already suffering as a result of the drought; that is, the length of time it is taking for water transfers to be processed and completed.

On 27 September, the state government announced that it would waive nearly $400,000 in fees to transfer River Murray water allocations. Prior to this, every time a farmer or irrigator wanted to lease their water supply they had to incur a $324 transfer fee. At this time the Minister for the River Murray (Hon. Karlene Maywald) said:

...waiving the transfer fee will help to relieve the financial burden on irrigators for costs they would not normally have occurred if water restrictions had not been implemented.

This has not resulted in easing any burdens on irrigators or farmers but has, rather, compounded their problems and increased their stresses. This is due to the length of time the Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation (DWLBC) is taking to complete water-transfer applications. A constituent of mine has endured untold stress in relation to their attempt to transfer water, on top of the stresses currently impacting on their dairy farming business. A constituent of mine decided to lease their water allocation to others.

They decided that 16 per cent is not enough to grow grass for their dairy cows to eat, and thought that by leasing it to others it would help those with permanent plantings to try to save their trees. Well, the outcome of this gesture has brought nothing but extra stress upon my constituent, the people attempting to buy the water and others caught up in the cycle. My constituent lodged three separate applications, on 13, 18 and 20 September respectively, and still none has been finalised.

The chairman of SAMI was told that water transfer paperwork would take two to four weeks. My constituents (and I am sure they are not the only ones) have now been waiting over seven weeks and their application has still not been finalised. In fact, they were told just last week that one of the transfers is still a minimum of four weeks away. In late September minister Maywald said:

Irrigators are reminded that the transfer process through DWLBC only begins once an application has been lodged with the department, not when the trade is lodged with the broker.

However, it has come to my attention that DWLBC is not giving the necessary paperwork to the brokers (one large broker said this has been the case for them) in order for the broker to be able to lodge the application with the DWLBC. Because of DWLBC not giving its relevant paperwork to the broker in a timely fashion, the long delay appears to be the fault of the broker and not the fault of the department. The long turnaround time for transfers is not only impacting on those who are selling their allocations but also a flow-on effect to those owed money by farmers and irrigators and those waiting for the water. One of my constituents purchased $32,000 worth of hay to feed their cows, and the farmer is desperate for the money as they had no income last year. The hay was purchased on the understanding that the water transfers lodged would be completed within the month, thereby giving them the money to pay for their hay.

However, despite assurances that the maximum time for a transfer to be completed is four weeks, the fact that they are still waiting after seven weeks is ridiculous. The constituents concerned purchased their hay from people who experienced significant crop failures to try to give them some income. However, as they have not been paid for their water yet, they cannot give any payment to the crop farmer, so the crop farmer continues on with no income.

What about the injustices to the orchardists? Many orchardists have put their money into the trust account of the water seller and cannot use the water. These orchardists have brought water at hugely inflated prices and they cannot use it to save their permanent plantings. I have been notified that one water broker has millions of dollars sitting in trust accounts while the poor people continue to watch their livelihoods wither and die as they wait for the necessary paperwork to be completed.

Trees are dying while the state government bureaucrats dither. It is all well and good for the Premier and the Minister for the River Murray to announce today that irrigators will be allowed to use 22 per cent of their allocation from 1 December, but what about this situation? Today the Premier said:

...the government must take a very responsible approach to the allocation of water.

I agree wholeheartedly, but I must ask: why does the responsible approach not extend to water transfers? It is just nonsense. I note that the minister is here. She may wish to respond, because I make this speech with every honest intention. The people who are being affected by the department's inefficiencies are those already suffering enormously from the drought—the farmers, the irrigators and the orchardists. When announcing that water transfer fees would be waived, the Minister for the River Murray said:

The DWLBC Licensing Unit has a huge volume of trades to process, but has been working to improve the turnaround times. Extra staff have been employed.

If this is the case, I want to know why, when one of my constituents phoned the department, they were told that the department currently has more than 800 claims to process, it was too busy and under-resourced and that is why transfers were taking so long.