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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-07-15 Daily Xml
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WATER FOR GOOD

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (15:06): My question is to the Minister for Water Security. Will the minister guarantee that any annual water surpluses in South Australia will be retained in the River Murray? The government's Water for Good plan identifies that by 2050 South Australia will have an annual water surplus of between 22 gigalitres and 58 gigalitres, subject to climatic conditions. The report calculates the surplus using a constant allocation of River Murray water of 130 gigalitres for Adelaide in both 2009 and 2050.

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD (Chaffey—Minister for the River Murray, Minister for Water Security) (15:06): It is an interesting question asked by the member for Hammond, and once again demonstrates his lack of knowledge of how these water systems operate.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Ms Chapman: Your electorate's dying.

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD: One of the interesting things is that my electorate is not dying anywhere near as quickly as the career of the member for Bragg. However, what I will say is that the lack of understanding of water supply issues and River Murray management issues, and the lack of understanding of how they interconnect and how—

Mr Pederick interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Hammond has asked his question.

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD: Let me explain it step by step for the member for Hammond. South Australia has a water allocation out of the River Murray for metropolitan Adelaide. It is a 650 gigalitre rolling licence. Of that, South Australia can take more in dry years and take less in wet years, depending on how our Mount Lofty supplies fare, and that means how the rainfall in the Mount Loftys fares.

We have used that 650 rolling licence particularly well over the past decades to supply water into Adelaide. What will happen with the desal coming on line is that it gives us another option of water supply that can actually help to underpin and ensure that we have a climate dependent supply of water. The metropolitan Adelaide licence is non-tradeable licence, which means that if we do not use it for the metropolitan Adelaide use, then the only other use that it can be used for is the environment. That is the current situation, that will be retained, and that will remain.

When we are using water from the desalination plant and we are not needing to draw from the River Murray we have a number of options available to us. We have negotiated space in the dams of Hume and Dartmouth, and we can save some water up there for a not so rainy day, and we can use that water for the environment, and we will be very happy to use that water for the environment.

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