Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Xenophon for his question and for his notification of this question. As I am sure the senator would know, and as the federal government believes, the northern Adelaide region is a premium horticultural area with great prospects. That is why the federal government is supporting a feasibility study into further water use in that region to help investigate what those options might be. The allocation of water in the Northern Adelaide Irrigation Area will of course be a matter for the South Australian government. However, we would expect this to be a comprehensive feasibility study that will investigate viable alternative options so that it can compare the cost of one option against another.

I understand from the South Australian government that the proposal that has been put forward to us could generate hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in potential income per year. That is why it is right and proper to investigate this particular proposal. The federal government, under this fund, is looking for projects that will help improve water security, reliability and efficiency to ensure that we can take advantage of growing more food and employing more people in our agricultural area.