MORGAN Heritage FLOTILLA - Morgan, South Australia

MURRAY DARLING BASIN PLAN Member for Stuart
First of all, there is a significant stretch of the River Murray and communities in the electorate of Stuart, particularly 31 in the
area around Morgan, Blanchetown and Cadell. That area has been particularly hard-hit by the lack of water over the last
many, many years. It is a tremendous part of the Riverland and has very proud communities.
I point out that Cadell, I think, has probably been hit hardest of just about any community that I can think of anywhere up and
down the River Murray in South Australia. The reason for that is not because there is anything wrong with the community of
Cadell; it is a very proud community with a lot going for itself, but it is near Morgan and Blanchetown, which have stronger
tourism businesses, connections and infrastructure. They are more reliant on irrigation and primary production than many of
the other towns, so they have suffered more because they have a bit less to fall back on.
The difficulties with the River Murray over the last decade, really, but certainly the last five years, have been particularly hard
on that part of the Murray and on Cadell. Of course, they welcome the rains
Another area within the electorate of Stuart that has really done it tough is the area below Lock 1, downstream from
Blanchetown. This is an area that not only suffered from the impacts of their ability to draw water for irrigation and the
drought, but they also suffered enormously with regard to the drop in the level. Upstream of Lock 1, while there was reduced
flow and reduced water running through the river, they did not lose their level, so tourism was still okay. They certainly went
through hard times, probably more because of perception than anything else.
There was very little rain falling on their country on either side of the river. There were drastic cuts to what they could draw
out of the river. Also, right in front of them, they really had the heartbreaking, very obvious hit-you-in-the-face issues of the
water just subsiding. From purely a Stuart perspective, I take these issues with the river very seriously, and of course have a
particular interest in the minister's motion that the Natural Resources Committee inquire into the Murray-Darling Basin plan.
We have seen enormous changes and great difficulty with regard to the drastic cuts in irrigation, lack of water and, most
importantly to my mind, the enormous impact on communities and the economy. The communities and the economies of the
people who live on and near the river, up and down the full length of it in South Australia, have been really dreadfully
impacted.
The other thing that is very important with regard to the River Murray, the drought and the lack of flows that we have seen
coming from upstream over recent years, and now the tremendous rains that we have had in South Australia and in other
places in the country which have led to the river levels rising and the flow increasing, and really boom times for the river, is
the whole question as to what is reversible. For over 100 years we have been taking water out of this river, and we have
caused difficulty for ourselves as a state and as communities. It is not as simple as to say, 'Well, if we change what we take
out of it, if we stop taking it out, if we decrease what we take out, that it is automatically reversible and the environment just
goes back to where it was 100 years ago.'
That is not the case. It is certainly not the case in my mind. In fact, we are seeing at the moment in that area, below Lock 1,
that I mentioned before, that they were in a diabolical situation in the last few years; now they are in a very difficult situation
because of the flooding. This is a vibrant, changing, up-and-down environment, and I think for us to think that we would just
put a plan in place that will ameliorate all of that, fix that, get things back to the way we want it to be, even if we knew the way
we wanted it to be anyway, is probably a little bit naive.
My second point is that every single South Australian should have a very intense interest in the health of this Murray and, of
course, our section of the Murray in South Australia is a key component of the broader Murray-Darling Basin area.
It may well become clearer, and the minister may well tell us in more detail down the track—that would be good—but to say
that he would like us to inquire into the Murray-Darling Basin plan is a very broad, wide-open statement. I would like to have
some confidence and I would like to have some commitment from the minister that, if he wants this committee to go through
all this work, the recommendations would be listened to, followed and implemented to the best of his ability, because
otherwise we would really be wasting our time.
Make no mistake, this would be an enormous job. Hundreds of people and millions of dollars have been spent already into
looking into this issue, and that will get us up to a point where whichever draft of the plan the minister would like a committee
to look into will be tabled, and then there will be another look at it. It just would not be worth anybody's time to go to all that
extra cost, extra trouble and extra time, and the minister would have to find some extra resources for that committee to do it.
It just would not be possible to do the work otherwise; but even if the resources were available it just would not make sense
to use the resources and get the committee to do it if it was not to follow whatever the recommendations might be that would
come out of that committee.
I will leave it at that, but I do have three very strong reasons to have a great interest in this. A significant part of the River
Murray is in the electorate of Stuart. This is a statewide issue, and as a member of the Natural Resources Committee—and I
do take my participation on that committee extremely seriously, and I know that other members of the committee do too—I
think it is important to have the resources, and it is particularly important, minister, to know that whatever that committee
recommends—and those recommendations would be coming at the tail end of an enormous amount of work by other
people—if it was worth us doing the work, I would like to know that the recommendations would be followed.
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