House of Assembly Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1) 52 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Grievance Debate Grievance Debate Lower Lakes LOWER LAKES Mr PEDERICK House of Assembly Hammond Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (15:08): I rise today to address this house on the issue of the plight of the River Murray, and especially of the plight of areas around Lake Albert and Lake Alexandrina. I will comment on an email sent to me by members of the Meningie and Narrung Lakes Irrigators Association, which consists of a group of very forward-thinking irrigators who have utilised metered water direct from Lake Albert, and some have used water metered from Lake Alexandrina. These farmers are fully aware of the potential diversity of their region and the fragility of their environment adjacent to the Coorong and the lakes. The area has seen major developmental changes in irrigation since early European settlement and, with the threat of construction of a weir in 2006 and the subsequent drying up of the lake beds due to drought and mismanagement of the waters upstream, these same farmers were unable to access water and their businesses have been living in limbo ever since. Irrigation has ceased and many farmers were forced to sell their water allocations to survive. This has left millions of dollars of stranded irrigation assets, centre pivot irrigation systems, pipes and electrics, both above and below the ground. The district has been decimated. Many farm businesses have closed up and moved on. Those that have stayed are diversifying but are still not able to plan for a future with water. Property values have dropped. Who wants a district with no future? The flow-on effect to this community at the bottom end of the river and lake system has been devastating with the local Meningie Area School having the biggest loss of students in the state as people depart the district. They have lived with the threat of acid sulphates as the lakes dried out and these people still live in fear of what decisions are being made by those who live further upstream, and they urge the state government to consider their future. They say that if Lake Albert and Lake Alexandrina are not to be a part of a healthy ecosystem in the future, tell us now, so that we can plan ahead and get on with our lives. It is unfair to think that these communities can live for so long in uncertainty. It must be remembered that South Australia has already lost a lot of its major irrigation regions and a lot of industry from areas like the Lower Murray swamps and the Lower Lakes irrigation and dairy industry, and the Riverland has also lost many irrigators. We need to be careful with the building of the desalination plant—if it is ever completed—that it will take a heavy reliance off the need for water for Adelaide. I believe that many in the eastern states would have thought that South Australia did not need any water during this four or five year drought before the river recovered had the city of Adelaide not been at the end of the river. We need to be certain that people along the Murray-Darling Basin do not think that just because these things are happening we do not need water down through the system. The irrigation communities have felt the full impact of this, and the biggest problem that we have had lately is that the man-made interventions at Narrung, Clayton, Currency Creek and in Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert need to be removed immediately. These are still causing major environmental problems, and major problems for access to irrigatable water for stock water, especially out of Lake Albert, where I believe the levels for the quality of that water is running at about 6000 EC. It is just not good enough that, even though the river stream has recovered, we still have these problems around Lake Albert, and people are paying a fortune for reticulated water. People need to understand that there needs to be water flowing down the river and it has to go all the way, it has to go to these communities. Hard decisions need to be made to save the mighty Murray river before it is too late, and I must stress that all communities in the Murray Darling Basin are important and they all contribute to the socioeconomics of their own unique region. This is a huge problem in this area and the government needs to be held accountable. Why haven't these bunds been pulled out? It has caused a major crisis in the area. People have had to either diversify or they have had to sell up. Mr Venning House of Assembly Mr Venning: Are they still there? Mr PEDERICK House of Assembly Mr PEDERICK: They are still there. The government is attempting to pull out the one at Narrung, and it is making out that it is too hard to pull out the bunds at Clayton and Currency Creek. It is ridiculous. They need to get on with the job and support these Lower Lakes communities.