Lower Limestone Coast Water Allocation Plan

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:29): By way of supplementary question, will the minister clarify: clearly from his answer he is not disputing that somebody who is an irrigator is entitled to the delivery component, but he has said that they must have completed the form. Clearly your records will show that this particular irrigator has been an irrigator for some 30-odd years and has filled out a range of forms. Will there be any—

The Hon. G.E. Gago: If you knew his name!

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I will give you his name: it is Mr Malcolm Miller of Naracoorte.

The Hon. G.E. Gago: He'd have a form that he filled out.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Ridgway has the floor.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: It's very serious indeed. If he has no record or no recollection—and is clearly an irrigator and isn't disputing the actual allocation or the allocation of delivery supplement, but clearly he requires that delivery supplement. Will the minister make sure that the agency or his department shows some respect for the fact that Mr Miller has been an irrigator for some 35 years and hasn't tried to use the system to get an unfair advantage, but to get what he is entitled to?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:30): I thank the honourable member for the supplementary question. I've made it very plain to him that I am very happy to follow up on Mr Miller's situation. Now that I have the name, I will ask my department to contact him. If there's any other correspondence the honourable member would like to give me in relation to this issue, I will take that as well and pass it on to my department.

The honourable member was not born yesterday. He knows that in situations where there may be legal contracts, licences to be issued, these things have to be applied for, they have to be witnessed sometimes, they have to be signed for, and the department cannot—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Ridgway, listen to the answer.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —of its own volition go off and say, 'Well, I know Mr Bloggs down the street. He's been irrigating here for 25 years. I'll just fill that out for him.' They cannot do that; of course they can't do that. As I said, we have gone to great lengths to contact the community, the licensees, establish what they need to do, provide them with the information they need and provide them with the documentation. If there's been any breakdown at all in that system from Mr Miller's situation, from his perspective, I will ask my department to follow it up with the individual concerned.

The PRESIDENT: Before we proceed, can I say that question time is a very important function of our democracy, and I don't think Mr Miller has really been done much justice. Even though you can ask whatever question you want, the issue was so complex and probably needed some consideration, that to waste 11, almost 12, minutes of question time, when it really demanded much more attention than that, I think is just a waste. But as I said, you all have the right to ask the questions you want.