Water Allocation

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:02): Supplementary: a simple question for the minister—

The PRESIDENT: Hon. Mr Brokenshire, why don't you give the minister the answer, and he can work out the question? It might be easier for us all.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: I would like to do that because it would help. Does SA Water Corporation, when it trades water, have a policy to say that it will trade that water anywhere in the Murray-Darling Basin system, or is the policy that they will trade what we are talking about, temporary water, to South Australian irrigators?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (15:02): How many times do I have to educate the honourable member about how water markets work? Perhaps I need to send him out on a refresher. When you trade into a market, you buy a resource, whether it is a share or some other marketable good, that is sold on the free market. You buy it. You don't ask where it is coming from. You don't ask who the seller is, normally. You might see it if you are having a private trade, for example, which some people do, particularly irrigators trading to other irrigators, but when you are buying in a market fashion, you sell into a market and you buy from a market. That's how they work.