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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-03-25 Daily Xml
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MURRAY RIVER

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (14:53): My question is to the Premier. Have the MOU and the intergovernmental agreement on the River Murray, described by yourself as 'historic agreements', been exposed as both ineffective and legally unenforceable?

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD (Chaffey—Minister for the River Murray, Minister for Water Security) (14:54): No, they have not, in a word. What the opposition again fails to understand is that, because of the referral of powers under the Water Act—as first moved by Malcolm Turnbull and passed by the former commonwealth government and the amendments that have now occurred under the existing government—a new independent authority will be established and a new basin-wide plan will be developed. The trade rules are also part of the new Water Act—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for MacKillop!

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD: —and in relation to the trade rules South Australia has strong support from our irrigation community for the action that we have undertaken. There is a cap of 4 per cent that Victoria is imposing on trade from its irrigation districts. In 2004 there was a COAG agreement that barriers of trade up to 4 per cent would be removed by 2014.

What the opposition fails to acknowledge is that things have moved on since 2004. We have had the worst drought you can imagine. We have also had an activation of the market that was never anticipated back in 2004. We have also seen in the recent negotiations by Senator Nick Xenophon in relation to the stimulus package an acceleration of the purchase project and the purchase of water from willing sellers by the commonwealth. What that means is the situation has substantially changed.

Because the situation has substantially changed, the barriers to trade in Victoria will disadvantage both South Australia and New South Wales in that initiative, and it is imperative that there is a fair playing field when it comes to the purchase of water and that the purchase of water by the commonwealth needs to be across the basin, and not across the basin except in Victoria.

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