House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-06-19 Daily Xml

Contents

Murray-Darling Basin Plan

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:38): Can the minister advise what the additional costs might be that could be passed on to South Australian consumers to use the Desalination Plant as part of his plan to achieve water savings in the Murray-Darling Basin?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (14:38): I thank the deputy leader for her question. I am sure that the deputy leader, being the shadow minister for environment and water, would understand that the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is predicated around the fact that any initiatives which deliver that 450 gigalitres of extra environmental flows must not have a negative socio-economic impact. Any socio-economic impact must be positive or neutral from those projects. So, in order to get the go-ahead for any projects, there would be no additional on-cost to South Australian water users because that would not meet the positive or neutral socio-economic test.