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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-03-05 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

WATER TRADING

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) (14:01): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: For many years, this government and the people of South Australia have been demanding justice for the River Murray. We fought the former Howard federal government to allow the River Murray to be placed on the national COAG agenda, and finally won. That led to a federal government, $10 billion Murray-Darling Basin rescue plan. Then we fought for an independent authority to run the river system, and after months of dogged negotiation and much resistance from Victoria, we won.

We later, under the Rudd government, fought for the $13 billion intergovernmental agreement between all Murray-Darling Basin states and the commonwealth, and we won it at a COAG meeting here in Adelaide. We argued for the large scale reduction of over-allocated water licences and won over $3 billion for a buyback scheme.

That agreement, signed last July, also triggered the start of $3.7 billion in infrastructure works along the entire length of the basin, including $610 million in priority projects for South Australia that could result in water savings of more than 100 gigalitres of water in the Murray-Darling Basin.

For over 100 years, upstream states have deliberately used and abused the water of the River Murray. The river has suffered. All this has continued despite the repeated warnings and complaints from South Australia, dating back to federation and before. In fact, Alexander Downer's grandfather, as premier of South Australia, was making similar warnings.

This has been more recently exacerbated by the extreme and unprecedented drought that has been experienced across south-eastern Australia. We all now stand witness to the result. The Lower Lakes and Ramsar-listed Coorong face environmental disaster.

The fight to save the Murray has entered a new phase. I can now reveal to the house that there has been a series of meetings to explore a constitutional challenge to the upstream states to protect South Australia's rights. The states' rights in this matter are referred to in the Australian Constitution.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for MacKillop!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I have asked that a team be assembled to bring together all of the legal and scientific expertise necessary to prepare a constitutional court challenge—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for MacKillop is warned.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —that I am prepared to take all the way to the High Court of Australia.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The house will come to order. I have already warned the member for MacKillop.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Sir, as Acting Leader of Government Business, the opposition's continued interjecting is making it very difficult for the government to fulfil its role here in question time. I do not know what constitutes an offence to be thrown out of this place but the behaviour of both of those two members—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: —has to be called into line.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Speaker is on his feet. The house will come to order. The Premier has been given leave. I have already warned the member for MacKillop once.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I have asked that a team be assembled to bring together all of the legal and scientific expertise necessary to prepare a constitutional court challenge that I am prepared to take all the way to the High Court of Australia. Our Solicitor-General will lead the legal team and we will recruit eminent constitutional law experts and private practitioners to develop our case. We will not undertake such an action lightly. We will commit the same consideration and resolve as we did in winning our case to stop a nuclear waste dump being in imposed on South Australia. Our objective shall be to return sufficient permanent fresh water to the river to restore its health. I have asked a legal team to examine all avenues to secure South Australia's rights to water.

The upstream states continue to place barriers in the path of that long-term solution. Victoria's 4 per cent cap on trading water licences out of Victorian districts is one such barrier. That cap on trade lifts to 6 per cent by the end of this year but will not be abolished completely until 2014. But we believe that by 2014 it could be too late. We need that cap lifted well before 2014. We see it as a cap on reform and a cap on the rescue of the River Murray.

This government will now enter the temporary water market to purchase water needed to provide a healthier flow to the river while we continue to fight for a lasting solution. I will repeat that because I think it is really important that every member realises this: the government will now enter the temporary water market to purchase water needed to provide a healthier flow to the river while we continue to fight for a lasting solution.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: The state will not shirk its duty to keep the Lower Lakes and their environment in a sustainable condition—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I should not have to repeat my calls for order.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Our state will not shirk its duty to keep the Lower Lakes and their environment in a sustainable condition until the commonwealth can purchase enough permanent water licences to send additional environmental water down the river. But there will be little benefit in the commonwealth using its allocated $3 billion to buy permanent water to restore healthy environmental flows to the river if the environment has already been destroyed in the meantime. That is why we need to remove the barriers to water trading in the upstream states as a matter of some urgency.

At the same time, we are also acting to insure ourselves against catastrophe. This week the government has submitted a draft environmental impact statement to the commonwealth government for approval for construction, in the event that it becomes necessary, of a temporary weir on the River Murray just below Wellington. The weir will take nine months to build and so preparatory steps must be taken now.

I have repeatedly said, and I say it again today, that this government will do all it can to avoid building that weir. For us it has always been an action of last resort. It is a step that I do not want to be forced to take, but we have to be prepared for the possible incursion of seawater into the Lower Lakes to prevent acidification. Only then will the temporary weir be put in place to protect the fresh water supplies of Adelaide and regional towns that rely on River Murray water for their drinking water supplies. The EIS is expected to be released within the coming week or so for a full public consultation process.

This government has a responsibility first and foremost to guarantee our critical human needs for Adelaide and the other towns and regions that rely on the River Murray for their drinking water. We must put the needs of people ahead of all other considerations.

As everyone here is aware, this government is building a new $1.3 billion desalination plant to substantially reduce our reliance on the River Murray. That desal plant will come online at the end of next year. We are also investing millions of dollars in waste water recycling and stormwater re-use, far more than any other capital city in Australia.

This government has exhausted all diplomatic channels available to it, and its message today is that it is not prepared to stand by and passively watch the decline of our natural environment at the end of the Murray-Darling system. This government's fight for justice for the River Murray will go on until the health of the river system is restored. In the meantime, I look forward to hearing what the Leader of the Opposition says about his counterpart in Queensland who is threatening, if elected, to tear up the River Murray agreement.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Mr Speaker, I refer you to two standing orders. Standing order 131 relating to interruptions not allowed by members opposite—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Sir, I also draw your attention to standing order 137: if a member 'persistently or wilfully obstructs the business of the house'. The behaviour of the deputy leader, as well as that of the member for MacKillop, has for many months now—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: —been making it very difficult for government ministers to properly discharge their duty in answering questions.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I will deal with one point of order at a time.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I cannot speak for every minister, but our ability to communicate information to the house is being wilfully obstructed by the behaviour of both the deputy leader and the member for MacKillop.

Mr Pengilly interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Finniss.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I ask, sir, that you give consideration to what actions can be taken to ensure that the house behaves properly.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I thank the Deputy Premier, and also point out to him standing order 132 regarding responding to interjections—something of which he is rather fond, I have noticed.

I ask all members to assist me in keeping the house in order. It is often a judgment call on my part when to intervene because, if a minister is speaking and being interjected upon, my intervention can often be just as disruptive to the minister or can result in the disruption which I think that a member of the opposition is trying to achieve. It is often a difficult judgment call for the chair when or when not to intervene. If I think the minister on their feet is doing okay, then I am reluctant to intervene, unless I sense that the minister is having some difficulty.

However, interjections are out of order, as the Deputy Premier points out, and I ask members to observe that standing order and, in particular, to refrain from persistent interjections. The occasional interjection, which can be witty, is one thing, but constant, ongoing interjections, which even though they may not be particularly loud are deliberately designed to interrupt the minister, are out of order. I ask all members to assist me in keeping the house in order so that it does not become a disgrace to the state.

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