FARM WATER STORAGE

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY (14:54): A supplementary. Minister, if there are no water levies to pay by these dams, why is it so essential to have accurate measurements of their volumes?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:54): I thank the honourable member for his excellent supplementary. It is very important that we as a department and as a community, particularly the ranges community, know how much water is in the hydrological cycle. We need to know who is taking water and how much water so that water can be apportioned fairly across the whole area. If we do not know how much water is held in dams or is being taken from catchments, we can have no way of assessing the need across a whole area and apportioning that water entitlement fairly across all users. So, it is vitally important that we have that data.