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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-09-23 Daily Xml
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MID-MURRAY REGION

The Hon. DAVID WINDERLICH (16:13): I rise to speak about how this government and this parliament is letting down the people of the Mid-Murray. This region has been forced onto the agenda by a meeting on a sandbar near Swan Reach on 19 August. The meeting was attended by the Hon. Robert Brokenshire, myself, Adrian Pederick (member for Hammond) and more than 300 other people. The River, Lakes and Coorong Action Group also organised a bus to show their support, and I organised one from Adelaide.

However, I realised that I knew nothing about this area and so, last Thursday, I visited the Swan Reach Bowls Club to meet with local farmers and growers and learn more about the impact of drought and over-allocation on them and their families.

Some parts of South Australia are flooded with MPs on fact-finding tours, consultants and consulting bureaucrats–but not the Mid-Murray. They told me I was the first MP ever to visit them and sit down and talk to them one to one—me, a city-based MP from what has traditionally been a city-based party. That is an indictment on Labor ministers and Liberal members. They said that not so much as a project officer had been out their way. That is an indictment on several government departments.

The Hon. R.P. Wortley interjecting:

The Hon. DAVID WINDERLICH: You didn't go to Swan Reach.

The Hon. R.P. Wortley interjecting:

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Hon. I.K. Hunter): Order! The Hon. Mr Winderlich will ignore interjections.

The Hon. DAVID WINDERLICH: And I think that is a very good example of the attitude they told me about. Your interjections confirm the fact that you did not go there and you are defensive about it instead of being apologetic.

The Hon. R.P. Wortley interjecting:

The ACTING PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. DAVID WINDERLICH: Apparently, we have an indictment of a parliamentary committee as well. This area of the river has been completely forgotten by the state government and by the members of parliament who are supposed to be representing it.

The Hon. R.P. Wortley: We've been there, done that.

The Hon. T.J. Stephens: Make sure you recognise his interjection so that it ends up in Hansard.

The Hon. DAVID WINDERLICH: Yes; thank you to the Hon. Mr Wortley. I will double-check—

The Hon. R.P. Wortley interjecting:

The ACTING PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.P. Wortley interjecting:

The ACTING PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Wortley will come to order or I will remove him.

The Hon. DAVID WINDERLICH: I can confirm, having been on that same committee, that we did not go to Swan Reach. This complete neglect is apparent in the flawed policies at government levels. Take the federal exit grants: to be eligible for those grants, you must have a property of 40 hectares or less. David Peake, of the Coalition of Concerned Communities, is not eligible because his property is over 40 hectares in size, but he farms only 10 hectares—or he used to before the dropping river level left his pumps high and dry.

Mr Peake cannot farm most of his property because it is riverfront, but he had to purchase it and has to maintain it. These growers and their communities face some serious challenges. House prices are plummeting and houses are staying on the market for extended periods of time. The Mid-Murray Football League may fold next year if Cadell-Morgan cannot field a team. The price of water has tripled, making it harder for growers to remain viable.

These challenges, combined with a complete lack of attention from ministers, bureaucrats and members of parliament, has led to a nagging concern that they are not wanted. There is agreement that the government does not want any irrigation below Lock 1. These growers are very patient people. If this were France, they would have been blockading the Stuart Highway and setting fire to the local PIRSA office except, of course, there is no local PIRSA office.

They were not even angry about the fact that they might be seen as surplus to requirements. What they found intolerable was the lack of clear direction from the government. To paraphrase their views, 'If you want us to stay, help us. If you want us to leave, help us leave, but don't just leave us in limbo.'

I heard a very similar sentiment from a Riverland grower today, and these people are absolutely right. Everyone knows that times are tough along the river. Everyone knows that some people will have to leave their farms and their blocks and that this will make it tough for many communities. The government cannot make it rain, but it can provide some direction and some certainty so that people can plan whether to stay or whether they should make preparations to leave.

We, as members of parliament, have limited power but we can at least make the effort to visit some of these communities and listen to their stories and let them know that, even though we cannot solve their problems, we have not abandoned them and we will not do so. That is the least we can do and, apparently, that is too big an ask.

The Hon. R.P. Wortley interjecting:

The Hon. DAVID WINDERLICH: And Berri is not Swan Reach. It is not even the Mid-Murray.

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