Murray-Darling Basin Plan

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (16:25): My question is to the Minister for Water and River Murray. Will the minister update the chamber on the implementation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and, in particular, the recovery and delivery of environmental water?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (16:25): I thank the honourable member for his most important and very topical question. As I am sure all members of this place will agree, the future health of the Murray-Darling Basin is essential for the future of our state.

The River Murray is our most important natural resource, supplying water to our cities and towns, our businesses, our irrigators and industry. The South Australian government has fought hard to ensure the health of the river and that is why we worked to ensure the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, the commonwealth and the other basin jurisdictions understood the importance of recommencing the dredging at the Murray Mouth which happened on 9 January this year.

On Wednesday 28 January, I went to the Murray Mouth to observe the dredging operation. It is an incredibly beautiful part of the state. It is of great ecological importance and it reminded me of my days of camping and water skiing in the Coorong a long time ago. The Murray Mouth—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: A long time ago. The Murray Mouth is a critical part of the entire River Murray system. I cannot stress enough how important it is that the Mouth stays open to ensure free exchange of water between the river system and the sea. It also maintains water quality and sustains the health of the complex ecosystems in the Coorong. This dredging operation makes it absolutely clear, if you needed any evidence at all, how important it is that the full 3,200 gigalitres of water is delivered into the system.

This is the amount of water that South Australia fought hard for and was promised as part of the negotiations on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan which came into law a couple of years ago now. This is the amount of water that the best scientific advice says is needed to ensure the health and sustainability of the river and the health of the basin, including the Coorong and the Murray Mouth. As the Australian Conservation Foundation rightly points out in its progress report on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, released last year:

The basin is not only an ecological wonder, it also sustains and supports millions of Australians.

The need for dredging is a timely reminder that the Murray needs all 3,200 gigalitres. This, of course, means delivering the entire 450 gigalitres of additional environmental water to the river. Failing to do so would spell long-term ecological disaster. The South Australian government fought hard for the return of the additional 450 gigalitres of water, not aided one bit by those opposite. We are not prepared to compromise on the 450 gigalitres. While dredging is an effective measure, it offers only temporary relief. We need to ensure that the federal government honours the terms of the basin plan, identifying ways to increase the return of water to the basin and, most importantly, to deliver the full 3,200 gigalitres agreed to.

According to all the experts, this will ensure that the mouth should remain open without the need for dredging 95 per cent of the time, if the plan is delivered. The Australian Conservation Foundation states in its update that good progress has been made. The plan sets a target to recover 2,750 gigalitres by 2019 and, to date, 1,921 gigalitres have been recovered by the commonwealth government.

In addition, the sustainable diversion limit adjustment mechanism will come into operation in 2016 and will partially offset water recovery through projects to deliver equivalent environmental outcomes with less water. The state government is firmly committed to the plan. I will be pursuing its full implementation with Mr Bob Baldwin, the new parliamentary secretary to the Minister for the Environment, as well as all basin jurisdictions to ensure this water is delivered. It is crucial to understand how federal government policy runs a very real danger to the full delivery of this water. The federal government came to the election with a promise of capping water buybacks at 1,500 gigalitres and to require the further recovery up to 2,750, then through an engineering solution.

The problem with that is that there is only a certain amount of real estate along the River Murray where you can put in place engineering solutions that will recover water and, once you have done that, you run into the law of diminishing returns. The other problem is that, in terms of the legislation, the extra 450 was fairly and squarely determined to be delivered by engineering solutions. So, if you suck those engineering solutions down to the 2,750 gigalitre return, you are running out of real estate to put real engineering solutions in place to recover that 450 gigalitres. That is the problem with the federal government's position of capping water buybacks at 1,500 gigalitres from willing sellers into the system.

I take this opportunity to congratulate Mr Neil Andrew on his appointment to the position of the chair of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. I have every expectation that Mr Andrew will do a fantastic job advocating for the health of the basin. It is vital that the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, the basin states and the commonwealth work in a collaborative manner in the planning and delivery of environmental water; this includes ongoing consideration of how to improve the coordination, the effectiveness and the efficiency of environmental watering.

Implementation of the basin plan is well underway, as I said, but more time and a concerted effort is needed for it to be fully realised by 2019. I can assure all members of this place that the South Australian government will continue to fight to ensure that the plan is implemented in full to ensure the future health of the Murray Valley system.