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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-04-04 Daily Xml
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MURRAY-DARLING BASIN

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Minister for State Development) (15:36): I move:

That this house—

(a) acknowledges the central role the River Murray plays in the lives of all South Australians, including primary producers, local businesses, holiday-makers, and Aboriginal people for whom the river has an intrinsic spiritual and cultural meaning;

(b) notes the degraded and fragile state of the river in South Australia as a result of decades of overuse of the waters of the Murray Darling Basin;

(c) recognises that South Australia capped its take from the river in 1969 and that overallocation in upstream areas of the Murray Darling Basin has continued since that time:

(d) notes that the Goyder Institute for Water Research has reviewed the state government's scientific analysis of the draft basin plan and concluded that under the 2,750 gigalitres water recovery scenario, the ecological character of the river environment in South Australia is unlikely to be maintained, and will remain at risk of further degradation;

(e) agrees that the state government submission on the draft Murray Darling Basin plan must advocate for—

i recognition of South Australian irrigators' efficient use of water and responsible management of the river compared to the upstream states;

ii more water to be returned to the system than currently proposed so that it can be returned to an appropriate level of health, including environmental sites such as the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth and the Riverland Chowilla flood plain;

iii a basin plan that is based on the best available science consistent with the requirements of the Water Act 2007; and

iv the burden of adjustment to be placed on upstream states given that they have continued to significantly overallocate water after South Australia capped it take.

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