Murray River

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (15:02): My question is to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation. Will the minister update the chamber on what this government is doing to protect the Lower Lakes, Coorong and Murray Mouth?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (15:02): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. It is a very timely question, as he would know. The Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources is launching the new Lower Lakes, Coorong and Murray Mouth condition monitoring plan. South Australia has been working for many years to secure a Murray-Darling Basin Plan that delivers sufficient water to protect our key environmental assets.

The basin plan, of course, has to safeguard our state from a repeat of the Millennium Drought that impacted so severely on our way of life and our wellbeing and how it, obviously, threatened our economic productivity. We need to make sure that we are resilient in the face of future drought. It also saw riverbank collapses and acidification of the Lower Lakes. Honourable members can't fail to remember the horrible, horrible situation that was present down there in the salinisation of the Coorong and the great dieback right along the Coorong.

For South Australia to evaluate the effectiveness of the basin plan and to secure our fair share of environmental water, we do need to have a comprehensive and thorough ecological monitoring program, particularly for our key ecological assets and in particular the Lower Lakes, Coorong and Murray Mouth. This internationally important wetland is susceptible to harm in low-flow years. Some parts of the system, particularly the Coorong South Lagoon, have still not recovered fully from the effects of the Millennium Drought.

The Living Murray condition monitoring program has been running for 12 years. It represents a critical investment in science and the understanding of what is a fundamental part of the River Murray. It's a key component, and of course it's very important to how we actually manage, in practice, that wetland. With the recent review and improvement of the plan, we are now in a better position to track changes and condition as time progresses.

Many of the revised targets and indices in the plan have been adopted in our long-term environmental watering plan for the South Australian River Murray and will form the basis of reporting on the outcomes of the basin plan. The Living Murray program is a good example of achieving big outcomes through working together. South Australia knows just how important the Murray-Darling Basin river system is and how important the work that has gone into this plan is, and the work that will come out of it is going to be around maintaining and improving the health of the river.

The health of the whole basin, in fact, is no small thing, and we all know that. Living in the driest state of the driest inhabited continent, South Australians certainly know about the importance of a sustainable and secure water supply to their future and their families' future. I have said before, and it is worth repeating, that 1.5 million people rely on the River Murray for their drinking water, and there are thousands of South Australians who rely on it for their livelihoods.

We should not have to—we do, but we should not have to—continuously explain just how important that water is to South Australians, yet here we are again. We are standing up for South Australians again. We are still explaining to people in the east the critical need for that Murray-Darling Basin Plan to be delivered on time and in full. A great many people put in a lot of thought, time and hard work into developing and negotiating a plan that will ensure the health of the great river system, not the least being the current Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.

The plan is based on scientific evidence from some of our nation's most imminent—eminent—water experts, including the CSIRO.

The Hon. K.J. Maher: They are imminently eminent.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: They are imminently eminent. In spite of this, we still have a Murray-Darling Basin Plan that is in crisis and in desperate need of support.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The Four Corners program that aired in July of this year, the raft of new allegations of water theft and corruption, the systemic undermining of the basin plan being reported in just about every major news outlet across the country and, of course, the ministerial statement I made today and the document that I tabled from the New South Wales Ombudsman's inquiry, which shows a determined approach by the New South Wales government, or at least the agencies responsible, to ignore crucial aspects of compliance—all these things need to be aired before a royal commission.

While our federal politicians drag their feet on the Murray-Darling Basin and continue to ignore the issues facing the Murray, we in South Australia stand up for the river. The South Australian government will continue to stand up for the river and will continue to invest in important work like this new monitoring plan. It is extremely important that we continue to work together with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office, our community, the scientists who work so hard to give us the data and information that we can make good policy decisions on, the Ngarrindjeri and the other basin states who are working to achieve outcomes in the Lower Lakes and Coorong and across the basin, particularly with our Indigenous communities.

In particular, the hard work, commitment and dedication of South Australia's scientists continues to underpin the work that has been done so far. There has been a huge amount of work completed over the last 12 years and the quality of the new condition monitoring plan is a credit to the knowledge and expertise of those who have worked on it. Earlier this month, I was pleased to receive a report showing that salt levels in Lake Albert have returned to pre Millennium Drought levels thanks to water level cycling and several high-flow events in recent years, as well as water from the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder.

The lowering and raising of water levels, known as water level cycling, has been carried out by the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources since the Millennium Drought ended in 2010, helping to reduce salinity in Lake Albert to about 1,500 EC. In addition to the high flows in recent years, the delivery of environmental water has also assisted in removing salt from the lower River Murray and the Lower Lakes, as this has increased the volume of water available for release over the barrages as well. At the peak of the Millennium Drought, Lake Albert salinity reached more than 20,000 EC. As a point of reference, sea water is about 35,000 EC.

A year-long Lake Albert scoping study was carried out in 2013-14 to pinpoint the best management option to improve and maintain water quality and ecological health. The study recommended that water level cycling, being cost neutral and timely, should be adopted to reduce salinity in Lake Albert. Of course, this is a great outcome for Lake Albert and the River Murray, but the Lower Lakes, the Coorong and the Murray Mouth condition monitoring plan does highlight that there is still a lot to learn about our very special wetland and how we can manage it into the future.

By working with our experts, our scientists, our local community, the irrigators and our Indigenous communities, governments continue to work to get the best outcomes for our very precious river system. The advice we have received so far has helped us to secure a large share of the environmental water on offer, and it is important that we continue to fight for a fair share of water for our state.

I would like to acknowledge the work of the Lower Lakes, Coorong and Murray Mouth Scientific Advisory Group, the Community Advisory Panel and the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority, for supporting our staff in developing watering proposals and in guiding the barrage operations. I also congratulate the work of the staff from the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office for their support in delivering the Living Murray program and for the collaborative manner in which environmental water is being delivered in the basin.

This plan is one part of the government's ongoing efforts to save the River Murray. This government is unwavering in our commitment to stand up for that river, just as we are unwavering in our commitment to make South Australia self-sufficient in energy. We want South Australia to be in control of our energy plan, our energy system, and our energy plan does just that. We are unlike the Liberals, who are, as we heard from the minister to my right at the moment, addicted to privatisation—addicted to privatisation. The Liberals have already announced that they intend, should they win government at the next election, to privatise the government-owned power station—the government-owned power station.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Indeed, the Hon. Mr Lucas leads again with his chin. Before we even signed the cheque they had made the announcement that they intend to privatise the state-owned energy system. There you have it, out of their own mouths. Steven Marshall—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Minister, take a seat. For a start, can the Leader of the Government please show a bit of respect for your ministerial colleague and desist from interjecting. The Hon. Mr Dawkins, you have a fantastic radio voice, but it's very deep and loud and it overtakes everything. Please allow the minister to finish his answer so that others can ask questions. Minister.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Thank you, Mr President. I always feel very threatened when the Hon. Mr Dawkins opens up with his very loud stentorian vocals, very appropriate for church halls, where he does an excellent turn in his choral presentations, but goodness gracious, it scares the hell out of me.

I just want to finish on this point. While we are standing up for South Australia in terms of supporting the River Murray, in terms of making South Australia energy self-sufficient and we are purchasing a power plant wholly owned by the government to supply the energy security for South Australia's future, the Liberals have already pre-empted it and said that they are going to flog it off. Should they get into government, they are going to flog it off.

That's their policy announcement. They don't want the state to be involved in the energy system. They want to leave it, as the Hon. Michelle Lensink said earlier, to the free market—hands off the steering wheel. They have done such a good job for us so far, haven't they, that free market? That free market in the energy system that the Hon. Robert Lucas gave us when he privatised ETSA. That's what he wants to do with the state-owned energy station. That's what he wants to do and you can bet your bottom dollar that should they be back in government they will do it to SA Water as well.