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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-10-30 Daily Xml
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MURRAY-DARLING BASIN PLAN

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (16:06): I rise today to speak on the Premier's ministerial statement and also his Dorothy Dix questions today. I am quite outraged to think that the Premier would come in here today and declare that he will put pressure on our federal colleagues to make the decision in the right manner when it comes to the Murray-Darling Basin plan.

Most people in this place would note that, on Friday, the Premier, flanked by the Prime Minister, announced a $1.77 billion funding exercise to obtain an extra 450 gigalitres of water. That 450 gigalitres of water has now put the Murray-Darling Basin plan back to 2024 and, in that time, I think it is absolutely outrageous that he would hang the state out to dry; that is the operative term, 'hanging the state out to dry'. By 2024, we could have another drought with no outcome, with no solution-based approach to this Murray-Darling Basin plan.

My address to the Premier directly—and I know that he is not here, but he needs to listen—is that, while he has been busy grandstanding with a taxpayer-funded, vote-grabbing smokescreen for failure, I have been talking with my federal Liberal colleagues and ensuring that they understand what is at stake with the basin plan. They are listening to me and they are not listening to the Premier.

Premier, you have been taking credit for the fight for the Murray campaign, but you have done absolutely nothing except mothball the desal plant and threaten to derail the plan with a High Court challenge. If anyone is going to take credit for the federal Liberal MPs supporting a basin plan, it is the Liberal Party of South Australia, not you, Jay Weatherill, not you as the Premier of South Australia.

You have been diluting your demands. In October, you came to the Riverland and demanded 4,000 gigalitres and not a drop less. You said that the irrigators in the Riverland region would not give up one more litre of water and, if you had to, you would go to the High Court. You have backflipped at every stage of the way.

Now, there has been another announcement. He has come out and said that there is $265 million of commonwealth funding going to the Riverland region. I welcome that. I welcome that funding going to the Riverland region because that is the region that will be most impacted in South Australia with this Murray-Darling Basin plan.

Make no mistake, the $265 million is barely enough to counteract the amount of water that is going to be needed for South Australia's contribution to the sustainable diversion limits. So Premier Weatherill, how much extra water will South Australia have to give up with your demands for a higher water content into the river? Again, the Prime Minister says more water equals a healthy river. What rubbish! In 2010 we had 23,000 gigalitres come into South Australia. We still have salinity issues at Lake Albert. We still have salinity issues at the barrages. We have put no infrastructure money into South Australia whatsoever. We have been given a paltry $20 million out of $5.8 billion in the Sustainable Rural Water Use and Infrastructure Program.

The Premier is hailing this as a win, that this is a success. He has been out to federal member Christopher Pyne's office today, doing a press conference saying that he needs to put the pressure on Mr Pyne for more water. Mr Pyne is well aware of exactly what is going on in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan because every step of the way I, the member for Chaffey, am keeping him and his colleagues involved, explaining to them exactly what impact it will have on South Australia and, just as importantly, what impact it will have on the most affected electorate here in South Australia—the electorate of Chaffey.

Yet, we get this blistering comment about how I am not deserving of being the member for Chaffey. We get the water minister to say that my attitude is atrocious. My attitude is about having a sustainable river here for South Australia with a balanced social, economic and environmental outcome. It is not about grandstanding with taxpayers' funds for a $2 million campaign. It is not about saying this is a wonderful win. At what cost is this wonderful win to the people of South Australia?

The Premier today keeps coming out and saying that this is a win, and I am standing by the Prime Minister here to say that I am going to save the River Murray. Premier, you are not saving the River Murray while you are talking politics and not addressing the solution based approach that this state needs. This state has a huge contribution to put into water reform in this state and yet the Premier continues to ignore it. He continues to look past what we can do to fix up what we have here in South Australia. That solution based approach must be adopted.

Time expired.

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