WATER INDUSTRY ALLIANCE

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:31): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the minister for primary industries a question relating to Water Industry Alliance funding.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: During the drought, the small block irrigators exit program was opened in September 2008 and the key objective was to enable irrigators to sell their water entitlements and leave irrigated agriculture. In South Australia, 176 irrigators accepted the conditions of the program and the first of these irrigators will meet the five-year condition not to use this land for an irrigation farming enterprise in December 2014.

The Central Irrigation Trust, based in the Riverland, is calling on the federal government to lift these restrictions so investors can access this irrigation land as part of the $240 million Water Industry Alliance fund. My questions to the minister are:

1. During negotiations with the federal government for the $240 million Water Industry Alliance funding, did the minister discuss lifting the five-year moratorium on blocks which exited the program?

2. Can the minister advise what guidelines are available to assist irrigators to access the Water Industry Alliance funding and, if not, when will river communities be provided with this information?

3. Can the minister advise what interest there has been from investors in terms of purchasing vacant exited blocks?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (14:33): A significant funding package has been made available for the South Australian River Murray Improvements Program that aims to return 40 gigalitres of water to the environment and provide opportunities for regional development and also the reconfiguration and renewal of the South Australian River Murray irrigation industry. The $265 million funding announcement is comprised of:

$180 million from the commonwealth Sustainable Rural Water Use and Infrastructure program, all of which will be put towards the Water Industry Alliance program;

$85 million from the South Australian industry futures fund, to be established for research, regional development and industry redevelopment in South Australia, with $60 million of the $85 million to be put towards the Water Industry Alliance program; and

$25 million towards regional development research and programs in the South Australian River Murray.

The South Australian government continues to work to improve environmental outcomes along the South Australian River Murray, and obviously strongly supports the Water Industry Alliance in its development of the $240 million program. This is a very important investment to assist irrigators to further improve their infrastructure and practices and consolidate our state's position as international best practice irrigators. The proposed program will provide our irrigators with an opportunity to reward their previous responsible behaviours by investing in the future sustainability of the industry and region.

Indeed, a lot of our negotiations with them were around those matters and that is to ensure that South Australian irrigators were not disadvantaged because of the infrastructure improvements they had made previously, where other states were lagging behind and money was being redirected to assist them with those upgrades, whereas they had been made here. So, our negotiations were around other ways that those moneys might be able to be utilised, for instance, for debt reduction and suchlike. So a great deal of our negotiations were around those sorts of matters. It is my understanding that the intention is to reach final agreement very soon.

The state government will continue to work with irrigators and communities along the river. My agency has carriage of the regional development matters on behalf of the government and will perform work required in relation to those matters relating to economic development and diversification, while environmental works and measures naturally rest with minister Hunter from DEWNR.

In relation to the lifting of restrictions, if I recall, the restrictions were for four or five years, and the advice I have received is that most of those have either expired or are about to expire. So, in fact, those restrictions are no longer or provide very little inhibition or impediment to potential developments for the region. Because they have been in place for such a long time, they have either expired or are about to expire. That issue is no longer operating as a significant impediment. In relation to guidelines, they are being discussed and developed and we are working very closely with the industry in relation to those. There was a question on interest—

The Hon. S.G. Wade: The level of interest from investors in purchasing such blocks?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: I would have to take that on notice. In fact I doubt that we actually have that information available, but if we can access it I am happy to bring back those details to this place.