Drought Assistance

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (14:57): My question is to the Premier. What does the Premier say to farmers in Chaffey like Steve who is having to sell his livestock to stay on top of his water bills? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr WHETSTONE: Steve reports that his water bill has risen from $2.60 a kilolitre to $3.21 per kilolitre in the last 12 months and that his cattle are now smashing new fences to eat the roadside vegetation due to dry conditions.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Workforce and Population Strategy) (14:58): I would like to seek more information from the member about Steve's circumstances to better understand what's driving that price change. I would take the opportunity to put on record the concern that we have for the way in which primary producers are managing through this drought.

Seeing the data in retrospect of what the last year's rainfall across most of the state has looked like is very sobering. There are people on the land who have just lived it. I think going down to the South-East several months ago, during winter, seeing what ought to be paddocks that are sopping with water being green but otherwise dry was shocking to me. To have, through the Feast property, a drain that has never run dry in their living memory, no water at all, and seeing the way that Piccaninnie Ponds is drying up and under threat, therefore not holding back the seawater coming back through, was, again, shocking.

However, we are seeing this all across the settled areas. The impact is different in different areas depending on what the water security is and what the water supply is for people, but it's difficult in every single part. Now if SA Water is changing its pricing, I will not speak for the agency, but what I will do is undertake to understand why that's happened and to see not only what the cause is but what the remedies might be.