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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-09-21 Daily Xml
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Reservoir Management

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:27): I would like to rise today to talk about a number of issues relating to water. I am sure all members would be aware of the recent rain events that we have had in South Australia and right across Australia. We all know that if you look at long-term forecasts you would have a much better understanding of exactly how much rain we are going to get, which is exactly what the Minister for Water in South Australia forgot to do.

The minister was busy pumping River Murray water into Mount Bold while he was not looking at long-range forecasts, the long-range weather forecasts that every South Australian had the opportunity to look at that showed that we were going to have above average rainfalls. We have learnt that storage at Mount Bold spilled during the heavy rainfall and spewed into the Onkaparinga River and eventually out to sea. We also found out that just months ago the state government decided to continually pump a significant amount of River Murray water into Mount Bold.

Particularly for my constituents, irrigators and food producers learnt that 11.357 gigalitres of pumped River Murray water had spilled out to sea. I am not even able to describe what they thought, what their feeling was, about a minister who had them on, at that point in time, restricted allocations while he was pumping water willy-nilly out of the river and into Mount Bold. Yes, the conditions had been dry but the long-term forecast was for a wet winter and a wet spring. Other states had already forecast long-term regarding water allocations, and they had a framework in place, which we do not have in South Australia, to take into account the potential for above-average, medium rainfall across Australia.

I understand the importance of ensuring that Adelaide has a reliable water supply, but the state government needs to be looking further ahead. We cannot be reliant on making these critical decisions a week or month out. We must be making these forward planning projections. It seems we were pumping water without engaging any of these forward projections. All of a sudden, at the end of June, we decided that we were going to stop pumping and then, all of a sudden, we had water spilling out of Mount Bold into the Onkaparinga River. What a waste of water. What a waste of one of the world's most precious resources. The actual value of that amount of water on the open market today is about $34 million and the equivalent of that in pumped River Murray water has gone out to sea.

The Bureau of Meteorology actually released a climate outlook in March for April to June, which said that the rainfall outlook was above average in parts of southern Australia, so much so that it appeared that South Australia was a 70 per cent chance of exceeding the median rainfall—higher than any other area in Australia. In fact, in April, the Bureau of Meteorology released a climate outlook for May to July which predicted above average rainfall in large parts of mainland Australia, showing that South Australia was a 70 to 75 per cent chance of being above median rainfall.

It is a little bit like the policy that the Liberal Party has just recently announced about forward projections. It is about the scenarios that we were going to put into place so that we can support those food producers and support the South Australian economy, so that we can actually stop the waste and stop this ridiculous bickering that the minister often goes on about. The Minister for Water has said that, at the time, there were no forecasts that we were going to have an amazingly wet year. Well, minister, clearly every other South Australian saw the weather forecasts except you. It is absolutely outrageous.

On another note, it is hard to fathom that the state government has just spent $91,400 on a Victorian-based business to undertake a cost-benefit analysis for the potential use of Adelaide's desalination plant. Another interstate contract has been given out by the South Australian government. We wonder why there is a lack of jobs here in South Australia. There is a lack of support for business. Would there have been a business in South Australia that could actually have undertaken that work? Yes, there is.

The government is not supporting South Australian business. It is not supporting South Australian jobs. Instead, it is going to Victorian companies with an outcome that has already been forecast. I would like to call on the minister to retract his comments yesterday in the parliament and apologise to me and to the Liberal Party for his inaccuracies in saying that the desal plant would be turned on to give away free water.

Time expired.

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