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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-07-23 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

MURRAY-DARLING BASIN

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (15:37): The Murray-Darling Basin is in crisis from its most northern extremities to the Murray Mouth. Only national control and management of the river can save it. There they all go. I challenged the Premier to a debate on this. He has just voted against it. He is running off, so are all the ministers; they are not interested. If they were they would be here right now and we would be working through the issues.

Mr Rann, our Premier, and Mr Rudd have signed a COAG agreement that is a pup, that is fundamentally flawed, and which has literally sold South Australians down the river. One of the chief architects of it is the leader of the National Party. They have sold out to country South Australians on health and they have sold out to country South Australians on water. We all know that over years various governments of all political persuasions have over-allocated water within the system and neglected the environment, each other and the national interests.

A great opportunity was lost with the Howard National Water Initiative to bring all political parties in all states together behind the Murray, but instead, the leader of the National Party and the leader of the Labor Party in this state have signed up to a COAG agreement that sells South Australians down the river. What is wrong with that COAG agreement? In their agreement, the states will no longer be required to refer their powers to the commonwealth and the commonwealth will not acquire them. The Murray-Darling Basin Authority has been weakened as a result of powers being retained by the states through a ministerial council.

The implementation of a national plan to manage the Murray has been deferred until 2011. That is when their solution kicks in, after respective state and federal elections. State water plans remain in place in Victoria's case until 2019 and state water shares will remain in place and can only be changed subject to the unanimous approval of all basin states.

Labor's COAG agreement is not an enforceable contract. It has neither penalties nor remedies against recalcitrant parties. The states, as I have said, have not referred their powers. It is full of nonsense. Just look at clause 2.4.6: there is to be a separate inter-government agreement yet to be agreed upon. Clause 3.2.7: state water shares prevail. Clause 3.2.8 states that state water shares can only be changed by the unanimous decision of a ministerial council. Clause 3.2.10 provides:

The parties agree that South Australia will have access to storage capacity in the Hume and Dartmouth dams for the purpose of private carryover subject to this not affecting upstream states' water availability and storage access.

What a load of nonsense! Adelaidenow subscribers want some questions answered. Rob of Houghton asks:

Why are you dragging out the development of the desal plant described by Treasurer Foley as being off the shelf by building only a pilot scale plant, for instance?

Rob of Millswood asks the question:

What plans does the government have to divert stormwater going into the gulf from Glenelg, West Beach and other stormwater systems into wetlands for reuse?

Craig of Hindmarsh asks:

Why did Victoria get a 10-year moratorium before they have to make any changes to their upstream water use?

Mary Smith of Adelaide asks:

What is the ratio between the current economic growth of SA and sustainable and reliable water supply for future construction and housing developments planned over the next five years?

These questions deserve answers.

I can tell the house that the state Liberals today announced their plan for the River Murray. We want four things: throw out his COAG agreement, rip it up and put it in the bin; start again with a new agreement; constitutional powers must be acquired by the commonwealth so there is one government in charge; and we then need a strong, independent authority to use those powers to make all of the states comply. No state government, Liberal, Labor, National, or whatever, in New South Wales or Victoria will put us ahead of their own states. Then get on with desal, get on with stormwater and get on with wastewater. Only in this way can we get a result. We must start again. When we create that plan, it must be in place by 2009, not 2011. We believe we need to start on the compulsory buyback of licences. We have called for a 6.1 per cent buyback of those allocations, releasing 750 gigalitres. Labor has got it wrong: we have got it right. The need for action is now, and it must come from our Prime Minister, it must come from our state Premier, it must come from the Labor Party—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition, your time has expired.

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