Northern Adelaide Irrigation Scheme

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:27): Supplementary: then where will the $110 million come from for the project that you announced in April this year? Is it borrowings, cash reserves or a reallocation of priorities, which was my question in the first place?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:28): I said in my opening remarks in response to the Hon. Mr Ridgway's question, subject to receiving the National Water Industry Development funding grant, the project will be funded through a mix of SA Water funds and up-front user contributions from NAIS customers. It will be for SA Water to work out the best way to fund that and, because it won't be a part of the regulated business, they will need to consider how they utilise their cash on hand and the normal business practices on that.

It may well be that I will need to give some direction to SA Water to make that happen, but we believe that this has such an important role for not only the growers up there, of course, but future jobs growth in the region that this is a great developmental project for the state and one that we would see SA Water's role in as being very beneficial, not just to growing a very significant part of our agricultural sector but in employing people in the north of Adelaide.