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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-09-23 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

WATER POLICY

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (15:30): Today is a very rare occasion when I want to congratulate the government because, within the space of the last seven days, it has picked up two opposition policies and put them into operation. The first is that the government has, after two years, realised that a desalination plant can be built relatively quickly; it does not take five or six years to build a desalination plant. The opposition brought that to the attention of this chamber and the people of South Australia way back in January 2007.

The reality is that if the government had been 'acting now for the future' (as the Premier claims he is about to start doing, after seven years in office) back in January 2007, when the opposition brought to the government's attention the necessity for a desalination plant in South Australia, we would have water flowing from that plant this summer. We would have that water flowing, and the government would not have had to save 203 gigalitres of water from last year's allocation to South Australia and put it in storage upstream. That is 203 gigalitres of water that has been put away for critical human needs that would have been available for things like saving the Lower Lakes—and we would not be having all the angst that is occurring now around the Lower Lakes and lower reaches below Lock 1. We would have 203 gigalitres of water in the river system, and there would be a much greater benefit to irrigators right along the River Murray in South Australia.

The other point I would like to make, which is even more important, is that this government has at last taken on board the opposition's policy of entering the water market, purchasing water and supporting irrigators, which I started talking about almost 18 months ago. On the weekend we had the nonsense of the government coming out and saying that it was going to give some money to those who want to get out of the industry, those so-called 'willing sellers'. Well, the only 'willingness' about those people who are forced to sell their water is the will of their bank—it is the will of their bank that is pushing them out.

So, we have the state government getting the federal government to put money into the pockets of those who have now been forced from the land because the government did not realise 12 months ago that it should have been in the water market helping irrigators on the River Murray. I suggested this 12 months ago, and the Minister for Water Security said that it was not possible, that we could not do it, that the other states would not allow us to do it, that it would distort the market. As I have argued many times, nothing has distorted the water market in this nation like the Minister for Water Security, the member for Chaffey. Every time she opened her mouth during the last water season the water market went on another one of its rollercoaster rides.

I am delighted that, even though belatedly, the government has seen the error of its ways and decided that it can indeed enter the water market; that indeed it will not bring about the end of the world as we know it; that indeed the other states will not prevent it from doing so. I assume it has come to that realisation on the basis of the announcement the Premier made today.

I am delighted that the government is putting into action the policy position I stated more recently that it should recognise the permanent plantings in the Riverland, the Murraylands and around the lakes as being state assets—albeit that they are owned by individuals and provide income to those who own the fruit blocks. They are state assets, they underpin those communities along the river and, to a significant degree, they underpin this state's economy. Hear, hear for the government for at last coming on board and accepting the very sensible policy position that I and the Liberal opposition have been espousing from some time. I give the government some congratulations for at last doing that.

There are a lot of other fine policy positions that the Liberal Party has announced, particularly on water, and stormwater harvesting is but one of them. It is time the government sat down and admitted that it has been getting that wrong for a long time and came on board with that as well.

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