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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-10-14 Daily Xml
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NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE: ARID LANDS NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT BOARD

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (16:03): I move:

That the 33rd report of the committee, on South Australian Arid Lands Natural Resources Management Board Levy Proposal 2009-10, be noted.

One of the Natural Resources Committee's statutory obligations is to consider and make recommendations on any levy proposed by a natural resources management board where the increase exceeds the annual CPI rise.

The South Australian Arid Lands Natural Resources Management Board 2009-10 levy proposal was staggering in its audacity. The proposed levy increase, discussed with members when board representatives presented to the Natural Resources Committee in April 2009, was the highest this committee has come across. The proposal was for a whopping 900 per cent increase on the previous year's levy, with most of this to be worn by a single water user, Prominent Hill Mine operated by Oz Minerals, which would go from paying $100,000 to $1 million.

The committee understands that the board needs to raise funds to support very worthwhile projects, including the Great Artesian Basin Sustainability Initiative, which involves capping bores and piping and monitoring water use in the Great Artesian Basin. However, in the committee's opinion, such a large levy increase targeted to a single big water user is as indefensible as it is inequitable.

After meeting with the committee in April 2009 and receiving members' feedback, especially regarding the above CPI levy increase, the board modified its position, proposing instead a 550 per cent increase in its draft NRM plan submitted to the minister.

Members were pleased to note that, after consultation, the minister further reduced the proposed levy for a 200 per cent increase. Members heard that the proposed 200 per cent increase figure was an agreed position arrived at after meetings between DWLBC, PIRSA, SAAL, the Arid Lands NRM Board, SACOME and Oz Minerals on 26 June 2009.

The committee did not wish to amend an agreed position so it has determined not to object to this levy. However, if this 200 per cent had not been agreed to, there is a strong possibility that the committee would have recommended an amendment similar to those it had suggested to other boards seeking above CPI increases.

The South Australian Arid Lands Board has argued that it needs the money to fund its works, including a contribution to the Great Artesian Basin which, since the late 1800s, has suffered greatly as a result of over-exploitation, free-flowing bores and widespread wastage of water.

In South Australia, the effects of over-exploitation have included pressure and flow reductions in mound springs, many of which, prior to over-extraction of GAB water, supported unique biota and wildlife and remain of tremendous scientific and anthropological importance in this arid zone.

No-one, least of all this committee, would argue that the board does not need significant funds (as it claims) in order to undertake its important works. However, there is a serious inequity when one large water user is being charged the bulk of the levy while another large water user, and numerous other landholders, essentially go unlevied.

While Prominent Hill gold miners are large users of water, Roxby Downs will use even more without paying a cent under the terms of the Roxby Downs Indenture Act 1982. Those terms were negotiated back in 1982, but committee members have heard that there will be an opportunity to renegotiate them as part of a review of the indenture act to accommodate the proposed Roxby Downs expansion. The committee members think that it is important that this opportunity to create a more level playing field should be taken in order to ensure that the burden of these NRM levies is more evenly spread.

In addition, members heard that pastoralists, who have been among the greatest beneficiaries of water supplies from the Great Artesian Basin, are still exempt from paying for water under the stock and domestic use exclusion of the NRM Act. Pastoralists at present pay only a very small division 1 land-based levy according to the previous dingo control levy. This apparent inequity also needs to be considered and rectified by the NRM board in the coming years to improve fairness.

I wish to thank all those who gave their time to assist the committee with this statutory obligation. Mr Christopher Reed (Presiding Member) and Mr John Gavin (General Manager), both from the SA Arid Lands Natural Resources Management Board, appeared and gave evidence to the committee at Parliament House on 30 April 2009. The committee received and considered three written submissions relating to this levy proposal; two were from the South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy (SACOME) and one was from Oz Minerals, the operator of the Prominent Hill mine.

I also commend the members of the committee—Mr John Rau MP (Chairman) and the Hons Graham Gunn MP; Steph Key MP; Caroline Schaefer MLC; Lea Stevens MP and David Winderlich MLC—for their contribution. All members of the committee worked cooperatively throughout. Finally, I would like to thank the committee staff for their patience and very professional assistance. I commend the report to the council.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. C.V. Schaefer.

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