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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-11-15 Daily Xml
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Murray

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:42): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking questions of the Minister for the Environment and the River Murray in relation to water from the River Murray.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: More than 80 per cent of Adelaide's water has been sourced from the River Murray in the past year, with over 189 billion litres of water pumped during the 2015-16 season. This was more than double the 73 billion litres taken in the 2014-15 period and more than four times the 42 billion litres of 2013-14. I ask the minister: why does South Australia remain so reliant on River Murray water, and what plans does the government have to reduce South Australia's reliance on the Murray River?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:43): I thank the honourable member for his very important question, which has been fed to him by someone in the other place, and full points to him for leading with it. I won't go too hard on him, but it is not surprising that you find people, particularly in the other place, in the Liberal Party, twisting all the facts around this issue. It is particularly not surprising that they don't mention the weather. They don't seem to understand that demand on our water system is dependent on the weather.

When it is hot and dry, and there is not a lot of rain falling, people are using more water. It's pretty simple, it's not rocket science in this regard. When there is demand for water, we pump the water. When you are off a dry year, as we have been recently, that is when you pump more water. When it is a wet year, you don't have to pump quite so much water because the demand drops. It is pretty simple: it goes up and down with the seasons. You might like to take that back to the member in the other place, Hon. Mr Wade, and try to persuade him.

It is particularly not surprising that the very same people who wanted all South Australians to go out and subsidise expensive desalination water for irrigation purposes would come up with such a crackpot idea and this line of questioning. These are the people who have the newest uncosted election policy of opening up SA Water's drinking reservoirs for recreational use, which poses serious threats to our community's water supply. They haven't costed that; they pretend it doesn't have any impact whatsoever, but of course it will. There will have to be new infrastructure built to deal with the increased risk.

There will have to be increased treatment of facilities, of reservoirs, where you have people bathing in them, boating in them, fishing in them, walking their dogs along the banks. You have to address those public risks and that comes at a cost. That means that the Liberals, if they are ever successful and implement this policy, will drive up the cost to consumers of water. It is a pretty simple construction. You increase the risk, you increase the treatment and the infrastructure required, and that's added costs. That's what your policy will do. If you are prepared to take that to the people, off you go. We will explain to them why their bills will go up under a Liberal government.

Let's talk about the real facts and the real figures. The Adelaide metropolitan area—just the metropolitan area alone—consumes about 12,000 million litres of water per month. Obviously, that goes up and down with the seasons, but that is the average. The timing of SA Water's pumping program varies based on water quality and natural inflows and demands and security supply levels. I have already covered that.

From 1 July 2016, I am advised that we have pumped 1,700 megalitres, which accounts for just 1 per cent of flow into reservoirs. That's what we have pumped from 1 July 2016, just 1 per cent of the flows. From January 2016, we have pumped 56,471 megalitres, which accounts for just 27 per cent of total inflow into the reservoirs. I am also advised that no water has been pumped into the Mount Bold Reservoir since natural winter inflows began in June 2016.

We have a policy of lowering our reservoir levels prior to winter to allow SA Water to capture as much natural inflow from rainfall as possible. That's an obvious proposition. It is a common sense management of the water system, reducing the volume of water pumped from the River Murray. If there are no inflows, however, if it doesn't rain, then of course we have to pump again. That's what happens in dry years. We plan for wet seasons to capture as much inflow as we possibly can across our catchments, which is cheaper—

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: And the bureau was projecting it would rain in the Adelaide Hills.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: We will come to that. The furphies that are being put about by the Liberal Party are absolutely unbelievable. You would think this mob would know a little bit more, but they don't. We will come to that in a minute. SA Water only pumps enough water from the River Murray as is needed to supply their customers. This is also within the River Murray metropolitan licence. SA Water protects affordability by using lowest cost sources of water first and regularly reviews available resources to ensure they have an understanding of how water levels in the reservoirs are increasing from natural inflows.

For context, natural inflow into the western Mount Lofty Ranges reservoirs was extremely low in 2015-16, I am advised, with inflow comparable to the last big drought in 2008-09, and less than half of the 10-year average. At the beginning of July this year, Mount Bold Reservoir was at 53 per cent capacity. All pumping from the River Murray into the reservoir finished in late June. Taking into account usual seasonal forecasts, this ensured a secure level, with space available for inflows from rain over the winter and spring months.

If SA Water had not pumped water into Mount Bold throughout autumn and into June this year, the reservoir would have dropped dangerously to very low levels and we may not have been able to supply drinking water to the residents of the southern suburbs of Adelaide. We must pump enough water every month to supply the drinking requirements of the area that is supplied by that particular catchment.

In June this year, I am advised a minimal amount of water was actually pumped into the reservoir, with the majority of water pumped during March, April and May, when it was incredibly dry. At this time the Bureau of Meteorology was still only predicting a 55 to 60 per cent chance of a wetter than average winter in southern Australia.

Finally, as a last blow to the nonsense arguments that those opposite have made about pumping water from the River Murray, the Australian Conservation Foundation, I understand, are on record in one of the major publications as saying, through their representative, Mr Jono La Nauze, that compared with upstream irrigators—and we are referring of course to New South Wales and Victoria—Adelaide was in the 'little league' when it came to taking water from the Murray. Mr La Nauze said:

Even if Adelaide pumped every last drop it's entitled to, that would add up to about 1 per cent of water taken from the Murray-Darling Basin.

Let's not listen to this nonsense from the Liberals in the other place. Let's put to bed this idiotic notion that there was some sort of report that said we were going to get a massive rainfall this year, the idiotic notion that they are peddling over there—badly informed. Let me put out a couple of statements: the idiots in the Liberal party that the Hon. Michelle Lensink takes her advice from (she should know better now) are wrong every single time.

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: What, the Bureau of Meteorology?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The idiots in the Liberal Party. Let me refer to an Advertiser article of 18 January 2016, in which SA Water said:

We will pump more water from the River Murray to cope with high water demand.

That was on 18 January, in The Advertiser, putting it out there—high demand means we will pump more water from the River Murray. Here we have, on 25 May, the ABC reporting:

El Nino over, BoM says, so winter rain could be on the way.

It was updated on Wednesday 25 May 2016:

Forecaster Michael Knepp said conditions were back to neutral and the bureau was now on La Nina watch…'There's is a greater than 50 per cent chance that we might be in La Nina conditions later in the year,' Mr Knepp said—

But—

'That's not a certain thing, just something to keep an eye on over the next few months.'

That was in May.

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: They don't like it over there, the Liberals. They fabricate a reality of their own and try to peddle it to the media. The facts are very different and a little bit of research would have given it to you.

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: A little bit of research. Here we are in May, and on the ABC system, the Bureau of Meteorology is saying:

This is not a certain thing, just something to keep an eye on over the next few months.

And under the headline, 'Rainfall deficiency across Australia', it says:

Large areas of South Australia and Western Australia are also experiencing serious rainfall deficiency.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: 'Serious rainfall deficiency'—and just a few weeks before the rainfall event, on ABC Rural, a report states:

As the south-east pocket of South Australia endures its driest two years on record, water for livestock and household water has become exceedingly precious.

That is the ABC on 15 September 2016, saying, 'As the south-east pocket of South Australia endures its driest two years on record'. Then further on, it says:

[We're] running out of water for the garden, running out of water for the house at times—

And, further:

Ms Wray indicated the family is stressed about their lack of water.

There we go. A little bit of research might have told them that. It continues:

Mr Wray said the lack of rainfall was putting enormous pressure on underground water supplies, a lifeline for numerous primary industries in the south-east—

because there was no prediction of a wetter than average year back in those early months when we had to pump water.

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: Rubbish! It's all on the bureau's website. Check my Twitter account.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The Hon. Michelle Lensink wouldn't know what she is talking about because I have just read into the record contemporaneous media reports of the time of the sort of weather we were dealing with. It is unsurprising that they actually don't get with the facts. After all, this is the mob that went out after we had a massive storm and said that renewable energy was to blame for the blackout in this state. They said renewable energy was to blame, not the storm. This week the Bureau of Meteorology, which the Hon. Michelle Lensink was quoting a little while ago, in the AustralianFinancial Review of 15 November said:

South Australia was hit by a string of seven tornadoes and wind gusts of up to 260 kilometres an hour in the September super-storm that crippled the electricity network and plunged the state into darkness according to a report by the Bureau of Meteorology.

The Hon. Michelle Lensink, you can't pick and choose which bits of the Bureau of Meteorology reports you want to rely on.

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Michelle Lensink, you should be out there looking at all the reports over the whole year. When we are in dry times we will pump water out of the River Murray to satisfy the needs of South Australian water customers, just like they did in your day when you—the Liberals, I mean—were in government.

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: Can you tell me what that desalination plant is doing?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The desalination plant is producing 10 per cent of its capacity right now and plugging it into the water system, saving the River Murray huge amounts of water that otherwise would have to come out of the River Murray. That is the great thing about the desal plant running at 10 per cent capacity: it removes that pressure on the Murray because that is flowing straight into our pipe system. The Liberals opposite—and I don't blame the Liberals in this chamber; they are just reflecting the rubbish that is passed up to them from the place below us—

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: Point of order: the minister has been on his feet for more than 10 minutes.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: I've got another 10 to go.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: Good on you. Mr President, I ask you to direct him to conclude his answer.

The PRESIDENT: I will direct the Hon. Ms Lensink to stop interjecting the whole 10 minutes he has been on his feet. The minister is answering the question. It would be appreciated if he would get to the point, but he has every right to answer the question without interjection. Minister.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: It just highlights once again that the Liberals trot into this place with absolute fabrications. They don't even understand the information that is given to them. They couldn't read a Bureau of Meteorology report to save themselves. Luckily, we can and that is why we make sure that we have water in the system to provide for Adelaide's drinking water needs. If the Liberals were running it (a) it would have been privatised and people would be paying a much higher price for their water and (b) according to what they have been saying in the last few weeks, we wouldn't even have any water in the reservoirs in the first place.

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