WATER RESOURCES

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (14:46): Is the Premier concerned that a water project he championed in Victoria has just been condemned by the Victorian Auditor-General?

Members interjecting:

Mr WILLIAMS: Just listen to—

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I rise on a point of order. The Premier is plainly not responsible for the Victorian Auditor-General.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I will hear the question and then I will make a ruling. Member for Mitchell, would you complete the question?

Mr WILLIAMS: Thank you, sir. The COAG memorandum of understanding recently heralded by the Premier gave $1 billion to Victoria for its food bowl modernisation project. On 2 April I forewarned the house that this project would not deliver what it promised. Barely seven days later, Victoria's Auditor-General, Des Pearson, released a report that exposed the project as being badly costed and unlikely to deliver the water savings promised. He said:

At the time of the commitment to the project, there was no rigorous analysis to validate the expected level of water savings.

In his recommendations, Mr Pearson said that the government should increase transparency on the release of environmental flows and improve its reporting on water projects. However, on 2 April—a week before that report—our Premier told the house:

The project is expected to return 100 gigalitres—that is, 100 billion litres—of water to the system in environmental flows, in addition to the 100 gigalitres to be reinvested in sustainable industry. This is great news for South Australia.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Just on the question of—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for MacKillop! I take it from the question that this is a project that the state government has put some resources into, so the question is in order.

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:48): It is certainly not this state government that has put resources into the—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: No, that is not the state government. The honourable member does not understand, he does not get it. The Auditor-General has come out and criticised a Victorian water project, that is true, but it is a different project. It is not the one announced by the Prime Minister the other day; that was Victorian food bowl project No. 2. His criticism was of Victorian food bowl project No. 1.

The federal government has said that it will not approve funding for No. 2 unless there is the most rigorous due diligence. So, the honourable member has misled the house by the nature of his question, because the Auditor-General's criticism was of a completely different project—and I suspect he knows that.