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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-08-24 Daily Xml
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Water Infrastructure

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (15:46): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Can the minister please update the house on how the Marshall Liberal government is working with the commonwealth government to create job opportunities that impact on our community through investment in water infrastructure projects?

The Hon. D.K.B. BASHAM (Finniss—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (15:46): I thank the member for Hammond for his important question. Water infrastructure is a critical part of our regional communities and our ag sector, which the member for Hammond certainly knows. I remember working with him in my roles in the dairy industry through the droughts and the pressures that particularly his electorate faced during that time with issues around water.

To date, we have spent about $13 million on projects locally during the on-farm water scheme, which is again another drought measure that has been put in place to assist farmers as they struggle with the vagaries of drought and making sure they are able to protect their livestock and have adequate water and also help some of the horticultural industries with their issues as well.

We have been working with the commonwealth more recently also to make sure we have great water projects coming forward to make sure we have jobs for our regional areas. Recently, the federal government announced $90 million for 10 water projects in South Australia, jointly funded with us, where we are going to actually underpin these projects to make sure that we see some great projects being delivered.

Industries that are going to be supported are pork, olive, vegetable, horticulture and wine—industries which will all benefit from this funding. It is estimated that from these projects there could be as many as 800 jobs that will arise from this investment. Some of the projects that are being put into place are:

$2.8 million towards the stormwater re-use project at Waikerie;

$2½ million to increase the trunk line capacity and new pumps at Nildottie in the Riverland;

$1.29 million for a recycled water pipeline from Mount Barker to Nairne to support the farmers there;

$1.58 million for a recycled water storage facility to supply farmers at Callington;

$1.4 million to reduce main water use at Seven Point Pork at Port Wakefield, which I am sure the Minister for Skills was able to see when he was up there last week, talking about the jobs that have been put in place there through the training programs;

$8.8 million towards the pipeline extension for NAIS, which is going to help the olive industry at Two Wells;

$800,000 around security and reliability of water for farmers in the areas around Port MacDonnell;

a big project of $58 million for the construction of high-technology glasshouses at Virginia, which will improve the water efficiency in those glasshouses to deliver great savings there;

$9 million for water infrastructure to supply agriculture around Roseworthy; and

$3.187 million towards the improvement of water deliverability and accessibility in the Lower Murray reclaimed irrigation areas.

The important thing about a lot of these projects is that they are actually using recycled water. This is water that wasn't available, that has been re-used, that's able to actually deliver jobs as well as improve the ability for these regions to underpin their businesses going forward. We are also working with the commonwealth to fund the preliminary business cases in Clare Valley and Eden Valley water supplies.

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