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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-05-08 Daily Xml
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MURRAY-DARLING BASIN

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (14:49): Why has the Minister for Water Security, on behalf of South Australian water users, failed to bring pressure on the New South Wales government to curb illegal diversions of water which would otherwise flow down the Darling River and into the Menindee Lakes? The waters flowing into the Menindee Lakes remain under the control of the New South Wales government until storage reaches 640 gigalitres, at which time control diverts to the Murray-Darling Basin Commission which may then release up to 160 gigalitres of that water from storage to be shared equally between New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The opposition has been told that illegal diversions have become commonplace in the Darling system and that the 640 gigalitre trigger is being actively avoided.

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD (Chaffey—Minister for the River Murray, Minister for Water Security, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Small Business, Minister Assisting the Minister for Industry and Trade) (14:50): Of course, if there are illegal diversions out of any system in the Murray-Darling Basin, the South Australian government is most concerned, and if the honourable member has information about these illegal diversions I hope he has reported them.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD: I think the Leader of the Opposition needs to put on the record who is making illegal diversions and who is acting illegally in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for MacKillop will come to order.

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD: The opposition misunderstands the constitutional rights of New South Wales in the Murray-Darling Basin at present, and the opposition continues to argue that we should not be supporting the national plan. The national plan is necessary so that we can have better management of the Murray-Darling Basin; so that things such as diversions that are occurring in New South Wales at present under the legal constitutional rights of the New South Wales government can cease and be brought into a new cap on both ground and surface water. The basin-wide plan will deal with these issues. If the honourable member is asserting that illegal activities are occurring, then he should bring forward the information so we can do something about it.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD: Put it on the record. I am making no assertions: the opposition is making assertions. Let me tell you about the kind of assertions which the opposition is making—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD: —and which consistently mislead the public.

The SPEAKER: Order! I have given the member for MacKillop a fair go. He needs to be quiet and listen to the minister's answer. He might not like what she is saying. If he has something to add, he has plenty of opportunity to do so. I am more than happy to give him the call to ask another question if there is something he would like to clarify with the minister. Until such time, he should show her courtesy.

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD: Thank you, sir. The taking of water in the Darling region by New South Wales is an issue that is of concern to South Australia. South Australia has been fighting for decades to have unregulated flows better shared across all the users, including the environment. That does not occur at present because South Australia does not have the constitutional rights to enforce it.

Under federation that water belongs to New South Wales until a trigger level is reached in the Menindee Lakes of 640 gigalitres. Until that trigger is actually activated through the levels in the lakes, the water is available to New South Wales to do what New South Wales wants with it. Unfortunately, we have no way to intervene in that, and that is why it is so important that members opposite get behind the national plan, that they get behind the state government in South Australia, that they get behind the establishment of an independent authority, and that they get behind what we are trying to do in order to get those issues dealt with at the national level.

It has taken decades to get to the stage that we are at now. We are finally going to see some independence in the Murray-Darling authority management of the river systems. We will get the states' right of veto out of the system. We will have an independent authority that will develop a basin-wide plan that will include groundwater and surface water for the very first time. The authority will answer to one minister, namely, the federal minister. The federal government will show the strong leadership necessary to adopt the plan developed by the new independent authority, or it will need to lay its reasons for not doing so on the table in both houses.

Members opposite are misleading the public in a number of different ways in relation to what is happening with the national plan. I will quote from a letter to the editor, recently written by the member for MacKillop as the shadow minister for water security. The letter refers to the Victorian food bowl project. The letter states:

The project is supposed to free up the water for Melbourne, with stage 2 to receive up to $1 billion from the federal government.

I do not know how many times the state opposition has been told that the project being funded through the $10 billion plan is not the pipeline to Melbourne: it is not the pipeline to Melbourne. Minister Wong has said over and over again that the project will be subject to due diligence.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for MacKillop will come to order!

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD: Stage 2 of the project, which is to be funded by the federal government, is subject to due diligence. That means no water, no money.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I apologise to the minister. The Minister for Transport should also take some of his own counsel and show courtesy to the minister on her feet.

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD: Constantly and knowingly, the member for MacKillop goes out there and continues to mislead the public. It is an absolute disgrace. The water for the stage 2 development is a 100 gigalitres for the environment, 100 gigalitres for the irrigators. That project is agreed to be funded conditionally—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I warn the member for MacKillop.

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD: —on the basis that it stacks up. It is not a project that has been supported unconditionally: it is conditional on that water being delivered. And that water is net, net savings to the environment. I think that is a very important point that the member for MacKillop continues to overlook. But he is not interested in getting progress on the Murray-Darling Basin, because let us look at his track record on water.

The member for MacKillop does not want forestry in the water balance in the South-East. He does not want to include forestry in it. Isn't that correct? You do not include forestry in the water balance and you have a big impact. What have you also supported in the South-East? You have supported the notion that water falling from the sky belongs to the farmer and he should be able to catch as much as he wants. That is what you support. You are on the record as saying that. Now that is—

Ms CHAPMAN: Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. It is clearly out of order for the minister to be pointing at the honourable member and saying what 'you' want. She is speaking to the speaker which is totally out of order. She is debating the matter and asking the questioner—

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister is answering the question, but I do uphold the point of order. She must not use the second person pronoun when talking about the member for MacKillop.

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD: My apologies, sir, I meant the member for MacKillop, the shadow spokesperson on water, who has an atrocious water record in water policy.

The SPEAKER: The member for Kavel.

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