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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-09-25 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

MURRAY RIVER IRRIGATORS

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (16:08): What a week it has been! We learned no more in question time today than we generally learn during question time from a government that continues to refuse to answer very sensible questions, the sort of questions that the public of South Australia want asked in this place. I asked a number of questions today, as did my colleague the member for Hammond and some of my other colleagues, but we still get no answers.

In attempting to answer one of my questions about the government's ad hoc approach to irrigation in the Riverland and its hasty change of policy direction, the Minister for Agriculture tried to make out to the house that this was a well organised and thought through plan. The reality is that the Premier gave it all away on Sunday when he was quoted in the Sunday Mail as saying that the commonwealth government exit package was the last piece of the jigsaw.

On Sunday, the last thing that was going to happen for irrigators in South Australia was that they were going to be paid money by the commonwealth government to sell their water to it, tear their crops out of the ground and walk away. That was the last piece of the jigsaw, and the Minister for Water Security said that that was fantastic news. That will go down really well in the Riverland: that the Minister for Water Security said that it was fantastic news that people in the Riverland would be encouraged to take $150,000 and tear their crops out of the ground—because that is what this government was planning.

The reaction was swift from those people in the Riverland, and the government had to act hastily. I can just imagine what happened around the cabinet table on Monday morning. I can just imagine the panic when the government realised what the polls in The Advertiser were doing last Saturday and when it realised the stupidity of what was going to happen to the irrigators. So, it hastily put together a plan. The government put out a press release on Tuesday which said, 'If you want some details, ring this number.' That is what it said to irrigators in the Riverland. Irrigators in the Riverland have been ringing that number ever since, and you know what they are being told? 'We have no idea of the criteria.' This was a policy position that was cooked up on Monday morning and dropped out on Tuesday, and the department responsible for administering it has no idea.

At a breakfast this morning we were told by somebody that they met with the minister last night and that the minister said that she will have no idea for a fortnight. So, irrigators are sitting there in this limbo. What we do know—because the Premier said it to the house on Tuesday—is that one of the criteria is that if you qualify for the exit package—and I can tell the house one thing: it is not difficult to qualify for the exit package—you will not qualify for the state government's package to try to keep you there. So, we will see 30 per cent of our irrigators out of business whilst rice and cotton growers in New South Wales will be insulated. We see that the Victorian government still has its 4 per cent cap on the sale of water out of any irrigation district.

The incredible news that came out today was the appointment of Robyn McLeod as Commissioner for Water Security. She is one of the architects who has led the demise of the South Australian irrigation sector. Ms McLeod has been developing things like the north-south pipeline, which will take 75 gigalitres out of the Goulburn Valley, out of the Murray-Darling Basin, and pump it over the Great Dividing Range into Melbourne. She is an architect of the Food Bowl Project, which the commonwealth government is putting a billion dollars into, but every commentator (including the Auditor-General of Victoria) is expressing doubts about the supposed water gain.

The architect of those plans has now been made the Commissioner for Water Security in South Australia—a failed ALP candidate out of Melbourne. The minister told us today that one of her claims to fame was that she was selected to go to Kevin Rudd's 2020 vision summit, but we know that she is the best mate of Julia Gillard.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired.

Mr WILLIAMS: That is most unfortunate, Madam Deputy Speaker.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member for Morialta.

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