Murray-Darling Basin

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Water and the River Murray. Will the minister inform the chamber about the $93 million State Priority Projects funding and how this vital funding will help secure the long-term health of the River Murray?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:51): I thank the honourable member for her most important question. I think everyone in this place is quite aware that the South Australian government has fought for the sustainability of the River Murray, and it is key to ensuring the continued prosperity of its community and irrigators that we do fight even now because the plan has not been delivered yet in full. We are still a few years away from that. As we know, there is some rear-guard activity happening in the eastern states to try to dilute some aspects of the plan.

We fought hard for the River Murray and we fought hard based on the best available science that we could bring to the argument—not politics, not parochial interests, but science was our battleground. Of course, we insisted on a Rolls Royce deal for South Australians and not the clapped-out Mazda that the Liberals were asking us to accept. There seems to be habitually in the Liberal Party this inability to stand up to the federal government, even when it was a Labor government. They refused to stand up to the government and fight for South Australia's interests. They were begging us to accept the third best option, the clapped-out Mazda, but our Premier said that would not do for South Australians, we want the absolute best deal we can possibly manage, and we achieved it.

We recognise that our most important natural resource is the future health of the Murray-Darling Basin. It is vital for our state's future. It supplies water to our cities and towns, our businesses, our irrigators and to industry. It is an essential part of safeguarding our irrigated agriculture sector, worth about $1.4 billion annually, as well as our world-renowned food and wine producers for generations to come. As a result of that fight, we secured a Murray-Darling Basin Plan better than what was on offer from the federal government and a plan that will secure the long-term health of the basin with commitments for a total return of 3,200 gigalitres to the river. We secured $444 million of funding for our irrigators, River Murray communities and environmental works.

It is absolutely critical that this investment continues whilst we are delivering the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in full and on time and to ensure the sustainability of the River Murray irrigators and communities into the future. In September 2015, I secured an agreement with the former parliamentary secretary Mr Bob Baldwin to progress the delivery of the $93 million under the Private Irrigation Infrastructure Program for South Australia. This program funds improving infrastructure efficiency improvements for Murray-Darling Basin operators in South Australia with a share of the water savings achieved from these projects to be used for environmental water purposes.

The agreement that I secured last September has immediately unlocked up to $2.7 million of commonwealth funds which we have matched with $300,000 of state funding, and this will be used to develop proposals—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Well, it is a pretty good deal that we have achieved because we stood up and fought for it, Mr Ridgway. Unlike you, who would have secured for South Australia the third or fourth worst option that was on the table, we drove a very hard bargain.

The Hon. K.J. Maher: They drove a Mazda.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: They drove the Mazda into the wall. There is no doubt our irrigators are already amongst the most efficient in the nation, but with the right assistance we can achieve even greater efficiencies, and the projects being developed will see us continue to modernise our irrigation sector, through infrastructure and a new licensing system, to support the rapidly expanding water market.

In addition, we are exploring an Eastern Mount Lofty Ranges project designed to return flows to the environment in dry times to help protect nationally-listed wetlands and species. By incorporating low-flow bypasses we will increase the amount of water that can be sustainably used, ensuring the continued productive capacity of the region. The $2.7 million for the development of South Australia's project proposals has been allocated this financial year and all proposals put forward by South Australia will be subject to commonwealth due diligence prior to being approved for funding.

As I mentioned before, I secured this agreement with the previous parliamentary secretary in September, and as you may recall that was quite a turbulent month for the federal Liberal government. As a courtesy to the new administration, I decided to give them enough time to adjust to the new circumstances, allocate ministries, and finalise their plans for the water and River Murray portfolios before I made the successful negotiations outcome known to the public. But we continued to work with the federal government and over the past weeks my office has been liaising with Senator Ruston and her staff to work out the logistics of this announcement.

It beggars belief, therefore, that the state water opposition spokesperson put out a release on 3 February this year lamenting a lack of activity in accessing the PIIP-SA funding. Surely, one would think that the state Liberal Party would check with their federal counterparts before making such an erroneous statement. This serves to highlight the member for Chaffey's lack of knowledge about issues crucial to his electorate and his shadow portfolio. It also highlights once again the state Liberal Party's willingness to score cheap political points based on inaccurate claims that result in uncertainty and confusion within the community.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The minister has the floor.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The recent statement from the opposition water spokesperson is doing a great disservice to his own party and, more alarmingly, to his constituents by pushing misinformation into the public domain.

If he had the basic wherewithal to discuss this with his federal counterparts he would have a clear understanding of the status of negotiations for the expenditure of the funding. It speaks of either incompetence in the state opposition or a lack of a relationship with their federal counterparts or perhaps both. It goes without saying that our irrigators and food producers need and deserve better than this from their representative.

This year will be an important period for the health of the river. The basin jurisdictions will be coming together to agree on projects under the Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism that address constraints and that achieve the additional 450 gigalitres Premier Jay Weatherill won for the river through his hard negotiations on the plan.

The time is well overdue for the opposition to stop politicising this important issue and to get on board with us and stand up for our state—something they just seem incapable of doing—even if it is against a federal Labor government, as I said.

They need to work constructively with the state government. They need to work constructively for their constituents, for our irrigators and our river communities to ensure South Australia's interests are protected and the future health of our river is secure.

As always, my door is always open to the member for Chaffey for his education and, indeed, any member of the opposition to discuss how we, as South Australians, can work together to ensure the protection of the River Murray and its communities into the future.