Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We have a government now that is prepared to do something about saving water in South Australia. This is the down payment; this is the first instalment of a Labor government that is prepared to bring the Murray River back to life. I made the comment in my maiden speech that I am the only South Australian senator actually born on the Murray. I was born in Murray Bridge in 1954. I remember what it was like back then when we had free-flowing water. We have not got that any more because for 12 years the opposition simply ignored the issue of water. Labor is now starting to do something about it.

What are we going to do? The first thing we want to do is secure drinking water for South Australia. The best way of doing that in the longer term is through a desalination plant. The South Australian state Labor government was prepared to do something about that and, in order to support them, the federal government came to their assistance and what might have been a 50-gigalitre desalination plant will now be either an 80-gigalitre or, with any luck, a 100-gigalitre desalination plant. That is going to start the process of getting us water security in South Australia for drinking water.

What else are we doing? We are starting to buy stations like Toorale Station as part of a long-term process to increase the amount of water that flows into South Australia. Adelaide needs about 230 gigalitres of water a year. The Murray, as far as it relates to South Australia, needs about 900 gigalitres of water. We are starting this process of buying it back. The previous government did nothing to do that. We have started this process and we will continue to do that. We will continue to buy water. We are not going to force people who currently have water rights to sell those water rights, but we are going out there into the market to purchase this water to get it to where we need it, which is South Australia. We are not prepared to risk Adelaide’s long-term water supply so we are leaving some of that water— (Time expired)