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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2007-11-15 Daily Xml
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MURRAY RIVER

Mr VENNING (Schubert) (15:20): Today is the day when the people of South Australia are reacting to our state's critical water situation. The people of the Murray, the rural communities, the irrigators, are here today at Parliament House asking us to help them survive this water crisis. The livelihoods, the lifestyles, the families and the communities are at stake, all because of a situation we all knew was going to happen since 2002.

It is the government inaction that needs scrutiny and criticism. We cannot do anything about the weather but we can plan and act to live with the weather that we receive and protect ourselves and our communities. The Minister for Water Security, the National Party member for Chaffey, needs to come under greater scrutiny and attract more criticism. How can she sit over there with the likes of the state Labor government as the National Party member representing the Riverland, the area affected by this, and she blames the federal coalition government, and the relevant minister is a member of her own party? This raises many questions.

The federal government has put up $10 billion towards this problem and Labor state governments have not been able to agree to set up a basin management committee to spend it. Former premier Bracks did not agree, and our Premier should have prevailed upon his political mate to step into line for the sake of all our states. Minister Maywald, the member for Chaffey, should never have allowed the water situation to get to this position. She is in a unique position, both as the local member and the water minister in the Labor government, to ensure we never got to this situation. After all, she gave this government the numbers to govern. It is an ideal time for a payback. She has not used that.

They should have got their hands on the $3 billion of the $10 billion promised by the federal government and bought water for our embattled Riverland industries and the communities. They still have not done it. Water should have been quarantined to save our permanent citrus plantings. Some of these trees were planted many decades ago. For many of the current citrus growers, the trees were planted by their fathers.

Saving the lakes is a very important issue as well, including the fishery. We were told today we are about to see a huge fish die-off, which could start as early as next week, and that would be a terrible situation, making it even worse. The minister is full of rhetoric about what she has done. She has lots of excuses. None will solve the problem. How does the National Party candidate for Barker (Deb Thiele), as the deputy leader said today in question time, justify her party's position and that of her state party leader? I wonder who the minister will vote for at the federal election, Howard or Rudd. You do wonder. I wonder what federal minister McGauran thinks about this. He would be pinching himself saying, 'How can this happen? We are running out of water.' And the government has not made a decision, not even now after all this.

I also wish to talk about the impact of the state's worsening seasonal conditions on the tourism industry in the area, and I represent some of it—the boating industry, food operations and small business. This crisis is also having a vast impact on South Australia's economy, employment rate and the housing market, and I think it is important to raise these topics in relation to last week's urgency motion so a full understanding of the extent of the drought, along with what the state government should be doing, can be gained.

Recreational boating in the Murray-Darling Basin, particularly downstream of Lock 1 at Blanchetown, is facing devastation. In the last reaches of the River Murray, from Blanchetown to the Murray Mouth, incorporating the lower lakes Alexandrina and Albert, the water levels have never been so low—up to one metre below the normal pool level since the placement of locks and weirs. It is ridiculous that water levels in that part of the lower River Murray will drop a further metre by April. Heaven forbid!

In this stretch of the river, forward houseboat and charter bookings have never been worse. General boating is way down as people anticipate no water at all. Day trippers and holiday numbers are down. All the snags that were deep below the surface are now presenting a serious hazard. Marinas, slips and ramps are becoming unusable. I have received news that a handful of marinas on this lowest reach of the river are now facing a choice of extensive dredging or closing their businesses. Predictions are that the water levels will fall further, and the currently disastrous situation for the recreational boating community is worsening. This is overflowing—no pun intended—to the tourism and leisure sectors, with immense impact on many regional sectors.

We are entering a very critical time. We are sitting for one more week before we come back in February. We will be in an absolutely crisis situation if we do not get a massive rain. The government hopes it will rain, madam, and all I can say is we on this side hope it rains also, because that is the only way we will solve the problem. Our hearts go out to all those people who are affected, and I thank those who came here today to represent their argument and their people, and certainly we are with them.

Time expired.

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