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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-02-22 Daily Xml
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MURRAY RIVER IRRIGATORS

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (16:05): It is my great pleasure to direct yet another question to the Minister for Water, and I hope for the sake of the house that we get an answer and not a load of rubbish.

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P. CAICA: This is not a fruitless point of order—but I think that was a reflection by the member.

The SPEAKER: Yes, I will uphold that.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for MacKillop, that was not a good choice of words. I think you need to be very careful. Now, ask your question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr WILLIAMS: My question is: would any South Australian Murray River irrigator be disadvantaged if the government now cancelled all carryover water from the last water year and, instead, gave every licensee 100 per cent of their allocation for the current water year?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Point of order, Madam Speaker: that is a highly hypothetical question and the minister cannot be expected to—

The SPEAKER: It is extremely close to a hypothetical question. I am not sure that you have finished, so finish your question and then I will make a ruling on it.

Mr WILLIAMS: Would not every South Australian irrigator, if given 100 per cent of their allocation, be at least as well off as what they are with the carryover, and why, if that is the case, don't you cancel the carryover from last year and simply give every irrigator 100 per cent of their allocation?

The SPEAKER: Minister, you can choose to answer that question if you wish.

An honourable member: Good question.

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton—Minister for Environment and Conservation, Minister for the River Murray, Minister for Water) (16:07): Good question? Why don't you ask me a question? Not that I mind them coming from you, Mitch, I have no problems with that. I will answer the question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P. CAICA: What this government did during the time of the most unprecedented drought in anyone's living memory, certainly in this chamber, was to provide a guarantee of carryover. What we did is we guaranteed—

Mr Williams: No you didn't.

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for MacKillop, I warn you.

The Hon. P. CAICA: What we did—and I would remind everyone that up until August last year we were still tracking at record low inflows into the Murray system. It was still looking pretty dodgy as to whether or not we would get the water that we have got now. Things changed dramatically within a period of time, to the extent that we now have a lot of water, as everyone knows, in the system. That is something we should celebrate and all be welcoming of.

This government provided a guarantee for this water year of a hundred per cent of carryover. One hundred per cent of carryover constituted 228 gigalitres. We gave that as a guarantee for irrigators.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P. CAICA: Carryover water was a drought contingency measure, and we provided—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P. CAICA: Madam Speaker, they are not interested.

The SPEAKER: I agree.

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