MURRAY RIVER IRRIGATORS

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (14:53): My question is to the Premier. Premier, has your government requested Treasury to prepare a report on the impact on the state's economy of a further loss of permanent horticultural crops in the Murraylands and Riverland? The PIRSA website gives the value of Riverland and Murraylands horticultural products in the year 2005-06 (the last year noted on the site) at $1.55 billion. The South Australian Citrus Board reports that 10 per cent of citrus groves were unwatered and allowed to die during the 2007-08 year and a further 10 per cent have been hibernated—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr WILLIAMS: Irrigators fear that the price of temporary water available on the market will see the loss of more permanent plantings in the next water year.

The Hon. R.J. McEWEN (Mount Gambier—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests) (14:54): I think that the light has gone on. Dim as it is, I actually think the light has gone on. There is no water. I think that, for the first time, the shadow minister has woken up to the fact that the one thing governments cannot do is create water. We have been working on this for two years now. Dean Brown has been working very closely with us, we have been doing socioeconomics and analysis, we have been working with the banks and we have been working confidentially with a whole lot of key stakeholders. Equally, the shadow minister has learnt for the first time that, over the last two years, around $200 million has been spent on buying in water to keep crops alive, to keep our permanent plantings alive.

We cannot create water; and, as long as there is a drought, our horticulturalists will struggle. We all know that. We must work with them through these difficult times. Unless the shadow minister has another solution to create water, we will continue to struggle until such time as it rains in the head waters and irrigation water is available. It will be tragic if we go into a third year of unprecedented drought on top of the $200 million worth of borrowings that have had to occur to fund water purchases for the last two years, only a small amount of which is being carried forward. It will be tragic for all of us if we have to go into a third year. That notwithstanding, this government cannot make it rain.