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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-09-10 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

MURRAY-DARLING BASIN AGREEMENT

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:30): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Today, I have written to the Prime Minister advising him that the South Australian government has agreed to the mechanism to transfer its constitutional powers to the commonwealth for the long-term sustainable management of the River Murray. This will make South Australia one of the first states in the nation to refer powers to the commonwealth.

South Australia will refer powers through the new Commonwealth Water Amendment Bill 2008. This referral of powers represents a critical step in delivering essential reforms to the way the Murray-Darling Basin system is managed. These reforms will provide a basin-wide plan to implement sustainable diversion limits and address over-allocation issues that have plagued the River Murray for far too long.

The changes to the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement, the amendments to the commonwealth water act, the referral of powers in the new intergovernmental agreement and the model state referral bill will deliver the South Australian government commitments in the Intergovernmental Agreement on Murray-Darling Basin Reform which was signed off at the July COAG.

The South Australian government signed the IGA in July and will introduce legislation to refer our constitutional powers over the River Murray on 23 September 2008. Importantly, the new arrangements recognise critical human water needs as the highest priority water use. The basin plan will specify sharing arrangements between the basin states to ensure that there is enough 'conveyance' water available to distribute critical human needs.

The new arrangements will deliver the reforms that were committed to at COAG in July, including:

Implementing South Australia's model for an independent expert based authority. The authority will have the autonomy to develop, implement and enforce a whole of basin plan, including setting a cap on the amount of water extracted from the system.

The authority will also assume the river operations powers and functions of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, addressing the current overlap in roles between the MDB Authority and the MDB Commission. The Murray-Darling Basin Commission will be abolished.

The authority will be accountable to a Ministerial Council and Basin Officials Committee for river operations it undertakes on behalf of the basin states.

The basin plan will not only set long-term average sustainable diversion limits for the basin, which will address over-allocation, but will now also have a priority focus on management of water for critical human needs.

Ms Chapman: You sold us down the river.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Interestingly, the opposition of course asked us to sign an agreement that did not have an independent commission. That is how bankrupt they are, how absolutely dishonest they are on the River Murray.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Under the new arrangements, South Australia will be able to store water for human critical needs for the first time in the Hume and Dartmouth dams. To date, South Australia has had no ongoing access to storage capacity and has been forced to negotiate with other states to have access to storages on a case-by-case basis. This reliance on the other states' goodwill has made negotiations on the management of the river difficult.

South Australia will now have the ability to carry over water for future years and store this water in upper River Murray storages to meet its critical human needs during periods of low flow. I am advised that our state will be able to store 150 per cent of its annual critical human needs, which is equivalent to around 300 gigalitres. The new agreement will also provide South Australia with the ability to store private irrigation carryover to help our irrigators in times of low flows.

It is important for South Australia that we continue to lead by example. The commonwealth has indicated that the legislative reform package needs to be in place by 1 November 2008 but, as I have indicated, we will introduce the bill this month. South Australia must be at the front, leading the way, so that the new governance arrangements for the medium and long-term sustainable management of the river can take effect.

In the meantime, the government is monitoring the situation closely at the Lower Lakes and the Coorong, especially with the threat of declining water levels and the resulting exposure of acid sulphate soils in the lakes, particularly in Lake Albert. The recent rains have provided a welcome relief to the Lower Lakes with an increase of more than 20 centimetres in the level of the lakes. Further inflows from the Finnis River, Angas River and Currency Creek are also welcome.

The federal government provided a frank assessment of the issues facing the Coorong and Lower Lakes to the Senate inquiry last week. The material prepared by the federal Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts provides eight options for the short-term management to improve the health of the lakes. A number of options have already been identified as impractical. None of the options are particularly palatable, all have some negative consequences for the environment, irrigator and agricultural communities, as well as risking the reserve water for critical human needs.

There are no easy solutions, but we must act in the best interests of South Australia and make decisions on the basis of the best scientific and environmental evidence and advice available to us. We will continue to work closely with the federal government, the Murray-Darling Basin Commission and in consultation with local communities in developing measures to best manage the extremely difficult circumstances.

In the meantime, work has started on the $610 million Murray Futures program for priority projects secured by the state government at the July COAG to help secure the future water needs of these communities. For the townships, communities and irrigators that currently draw water from the Lower Lakes, there will be a complete re-engineering of the water infrastructure so that there will be no need to use the water from the lakes. Murray Futures includes $200 million for work to improve the environmental health of the Lower Lakes and the Coorong.

Last month, Prime Minister Rudd announced a set of new water initiatives to deal with the critical situation. The federal government has responded to South Australia's request and has agreed to undertake a comprehensive, externally reviewed water audit of both private and public storages in the system. Many commentators claimed there were large volumes of water in the system that could be diverted to the Lower Lakes and the Coorong. It appears unlikely, but we will finally have some independent figures to show what is available.

The Prime Minister also announced an accelerated buyback of water licences and has agreed to co-fund an expansion, if necessary, of the desalination plant at Port Stanvac up to between 80 gigalitres and 100 gigalitres for the future water security of Adelaide. The state government is continuing to work with the federal government and other basin states to get the best outcome for South Australia and the River Murray.

Today, I call on all basin states to join us in committing to the new Murray-Darling Basin Agreement and to introduce the required legislation to deliver on the reforms so that we can end the 100 years of mismanagement of the Murray-Darling system. Everyone can do so by joining South Australia in referring our constitutional powers.

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