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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-03-20 Daily Xml
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FARM WATER STORAGE

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (14:56): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation questions regarding taxing rainfall captured in dams and rainwater tanks.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: I am seeking clarification from the minister because it is a matter that keeps buzzing around the farming community, particularly in the Mount Lofty Ranges. I will start with what the former premier, Mike Rann, tweeted on this topic on 18 January 2011. He tweeted:

Farmers know we will not be charging them for their entitlements. Nor will we be charging people for the water in their rainwater tanks.

On 18 January (the same day), he also tweeted:

And no, just in case anyone believed it, we won't be charging farmers for water that falls from the sky onto their land into their dams!

I am hearing that farmers with dams having a capacity of over five megalitres will in the future be required to pay for their water extractions. My questions are:

1. Will the minister confirm the former premier's tweet commitment that people will not be charged for water in their rainwater tanks?

2. Will the minister confirm the former premier's tweet commitment that farmers will not be charged for their entitlements?

3. If that is so, can the minister explain why some farmers, such as groundwater irrigators in the South-East and the River Murray irrigators, together with those in the Eastern and Mount Lofty Ranges, when the water allocation plan is finished, will have to pay a water levy for water which begins sometimes as rainfall, yet other irrigators do not?

4. What happened to the Natural Resources Management (Review) Bill, to which honourable members, including me, had moved amendments clarifying these issues after the minister's predecessor (Hon. Russell Wortley), who was handling the bill, abandoned it because it all got too hard?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:59): Mr President, sometimes you get a question in this place that just makes you want to laugh out loud. The honourable member was not even paying attention, Mr President, when you gave him the call to ask this question, and he had to be reminded.

In question No. 4, he asked what happened to our NRM bill, when I had got up in this place just 10 minutes ago and asked for it to be moved back onto the agenda in three weeks' time. Where was he then? Was he in the chamber? I think he might have been, but he certainly was not paying attention—as is his wont.

The Hon. G.E. Gago: He wasn't listening yesterday either.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: He never does. And he leads off—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Don't you come and defend him, David. You are a big city slicker yourself these days. You are not out there milking the cows with him, I understand.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: But if I had to, I would know what to do.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Well, you probably would. He leads off with comments saying, 'I'm hearing out in the community,' or 'There is buzzing around the farming community.' The only person buzzing around with this sort of information is the Hon. Mr Brokenshire himself, busy on radio, busy out in the community, telling people half-truths, stirring up issues he knows are not true and based on misleading information, but of course that is his wont and that is how he does his job. Let me assist the honourable member. Presumably after that little warm up he may be paying attention this time.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: I don't reckon you will ever warm him up.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The Hon. Mr Ridgway may be absolutely correct in that totally out of order interjection.

The PRESIDENT: Order! The gallery is filling.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Thank you, Mr President, for your support. The government does not, nor does it intend to, tax rainwater—or water at all. In prescribed water resource areas, a water licence is generally only required for irrigation, industrial or commercial purposes. Let me make that quite clear. In prescribed water resource areas, a water licence is generally only required for irrigation, industrial or commercial purposes.

Where a water licence is required, the landholder pays a once-off licence application fee which does not need to be renewed annually. The application fee is currently set at $206. In addition to this, a natural resources management board has an option to introduce a management levy in prescribed water resource areas for water taken for irrigation and commercial purposes only—

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire: Isn't a levy a tax?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: For irrigation and commercial purposes only. Any levy established is used to help manage natural resources in that region. A tax is money collected for the government's general revenue, whereas a levy is for a specific purpose, to assist the honourable member in his out of order interjection. Let me be clear. There is no levy for household water, water from household rainwater tanks or water licensed for stock and domestic use. The Natural Resources Management Act 2004 specifically disallows the raising of a levy on water taken for stock and domestic purposes, regardless of whether that water comes from roof runoff, a dam or a bore.

In addition, the government has no intention of asking people to put meters on household or domestic rainwater tanks, or rainwater tanks used to supply water to free ranging stock. Meters will not be required for dams or bores solely for stock and domestic purposes. However, meters will be required for dams and bores used for licensed commercial purposes. I invite the honourable member to go back on the radio and out into the farming community and tell people the truth this time.

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