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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-09-25 Daily Xml
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SA WATER BUILDING

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (14:49): My question is to the Minister for Water Security. What is the final cost of the fit-out of the SA Water building, and would that money not have been better spent providing funding to Riverland irrigators? On 5 October 2006, the parliament's Public Works Committee heard that important infrastructure works had been postponed so that SA Water could fit out its new headquarters at a cost of $46 million.

The SPEAKER: The member's explanation was the answer to the question. I am not sure what the minister has to add; $46 million, I thought you said. The Minister for Water Security has the call.

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD (Chaffey—Minister for the River Murray, Minister for Water Security) (14:50): A new building is under construction at the former tram barn site, 250 Victoria Square, for lease to SA Water for office and laboratory accommodation. This will be a state-of-the-art building; it will have fabulous facilities. It will house SA Water. It has an objective to bring together a number of SA Water sites into one collective site. It will have a fabulous education centre there.

It is currently being built by the Catholic Church and it is a tremendous project. I recently went on a tour of the project. I understand that the fit-out cost is in that vicinity, but I will get the actual figure for the member for MacKillop. As to the question as to whether it would be better invested in the Riverland, the Riverland itself has in recent times been the recipient of many announcements in relation to funding packages.

Back in July, the Murray Futures package was announced by the federal government. It was a package that South Australia put forward for funding, of which $110 million will be invested in the future of the River Murray and the Riverland. There is also funding that goes with that of $80 million for the purchase of water from willing sellers.

There are also now changes to the exit package strategy of the federal government. We called on the former federal government and we have been calling on this federal government to change the criteria of the exit package to enable people to stay on their land and to get access to the exit package so that they can move from a farming business and transition into another career or transition into retirement. That provides $150,000 per household, plus the sale of their water. The water will be sold to the commonwealth government for environmental purposes. This is a very important project and at this stage the commonwealth has committed $57 million to it.

So far, we have $110 million plus $80 million plus $57 million and then, on Tuesday this week the Premier announced a new initiative to underwrite permanent plantings in the Riverland at a cost of up to $67 million. Now we are up to a total of over $314 million to be invested in the Riverland to support that community through what is an extremely difficult time.

What would be useful in this chamber is if the opposition could support this community instead of trying to drag them down. That community needs bipartisan support. It needs to have the support of the leaders of our community, and it certainly is not helpful when the opposition tries to drive a wedge in the community that does nothing but undermine the future prosperity of the region. Opposition members should be ashamed of themselves.

The SPEAKER: The member for Hammond.

Mr Koutsantonis: New shirt day!

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for West Torrens!

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: Soak it in water!

The SPEAKER: Order, the Attorney-General!

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