WATER INDUSTRY ALLIANCE

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:26): I rise today to speak on a very important issue in my electorate and that is Water Industry Alliance funding that is so vitally needed by our economy. On Sunday 28 October 2012 Premier Weatherill travelled to the Riverland to announce that $265 million of investment in River Murray communities had been secured for South Australia. Under the Water Industry Alliance's River Murray improvements program, the breakdown of the funding was announced as $180 million for irrigators to improve efficiency and productivity of water use and management along the river, and $85 million for research, regional development and industry development in the state. In return, 40 gigalitres of water would be provided by the irrigators to the commonwealth environmental water holder.

In the Riverland there is concern that the guidelines to access funding would make it very difficult or near impossible to obtain. I need not remind this house that South Australia, and in particular Chaffey, has an impeccable record of water efficiency dating back 40 years. As the then water minister would understand, in many ways the state has been focused on being ahead of the curve on water efficiency. In so many places, sound infrastructure is already in place and what we should be doing now is looking at innovative funds and finding efficiency gains.

The guidelines almost appear as though they have been formed with other less advanced states in mind. What Riverland businesses need is to access funds for diverse projects such as plantings or property purchases for economies of scale, rather than funding for basic infrastructure that most businesses already have in place. I have had a number of growers, food producers, using state-of-the-art infrastructure contact my office with questions over how they will be able to access the Water Industry Alliance funding, given that they have already spent thousands of dollars upgrading their water infrastructure.

While I understand the guidelines on how to access the water are still being established, I already have concerns about the $265 million funding supposedly available. In a letter to members earlier this year, the Water Industry Alliance chief executive stated that up to $60 million would be available through a new $85 million national partnership agreement between the South Australian and the Australian governments for research, regional development and industry development.

It appeared that under the latest revelation $25 million of this funding was not accessible. During question time last month in another place, the Hon. Jing Lee asked the River Murray minister, Ian Hunter, about the missing $25 million in commonwealth funding. While providing responses which gave no further knowledge about what had happened to the $25 million, Mr Hunter said:

This investment in South Australian industry will assist our irrigators to further improve infrastructure and practices and consolidate our state's position as international best practice irrigators.

Well, I have news for the minister: South Australian irrigators are already very efficient, and have spent money from their own pockets to have the world's best irrigation practices. The minister also said:

The proposed program will provide South Australian irrigators with an opportunity to be rewarded for their previous responsible behaviour by investing in the future sustainability of the industry and the region.

Without the government relaxing guidelines, there may be no reward for Riverland irrigators who have already invested the time, money, effort and risk to upgrade their properties to peak efficiency. In response to my concerns voiced in TheMurray Pioneer, minister Hunter responded by stating that another $25 million on top of the $240 million available for this pool of money is going towards regional development research programs in the South Australian River Murray region.

So, the question still remains: why did the WIA CEO claim there was only up to $60 million of the $85 million available for research, regional development and industry development? The anomalies with this new water minister are a very regular occurrence. I would like to remind this house that we cannot afford to see this $25 million disappear as part of budgetary cutbacks as part of the implementation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Riverland communities need to benefit from all the funding that they can access, remembering that the Riverland will have to give up another 40 gigalitres off their economy's bottom line.