SA Government abandons irrigator fines with no action 12 months on

After almost a year, the SA Government has still not enforced $15m of fines on irrigators who used more water than they held on their accounts. So why has the water minister not acted?

SA Water Minister David Speirs has not enforced irrigator fines for overuse. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt.

THE South Australian Liberal-Nationals Government appears to have abandoned pursuing irrigators for $15 million in unpaid fines for using more water than they held on their accounts during the harsh 2019-20 season.

SA irrigators told The Weekly Times they had heard nothing since the SA Department of Environment and Water sent them letters last May outlining “proposed fines” of more than $4000 a megalitre in overuse penalties.

SA Murray River pumpers say they have received no further correspondence from the department, after a group of them lobbied Liberal Party MPs to waive the penalties.

One irrigator said Liberal SA Water Minister David Speirs had promised to waive the fines, given the department had failed to adequately communicate changes in overuse rules last season.

The Department sent a letter to irrigators in July 2019 warning they had to reconcile their accounts every quarter, not just at the end of the season, after repeated complaints from upstream irrigators and other Murray Darling Basin states.

SA irrigators say Liberal Upper House MP Nicola Centofanti helped them lobby Mr Speirs on the inequity of the fines, given the department’s poor implementation and administration of the new quarterly reconciliation system.

She has said “most of the fines will be waived, except for two or three recalcitrants who abused the system in the past”, one Murray irrigator said.

But when The Weekly Times contacted Ms Centofanti’s office it was told “Nicola is unavailable to make any comments on this matter at this time”.

Mr Speirs office also stated “the SA Government has not waived water fines”.

Water Communities South Australia spokesman Ian Penno, who first raised the alarm on the impact of the fines on irrigators, said it now appeared they were “not going to be enforced”.

Both Mr Penno and one SA Murray irrigator said they had been told about pending legislation or a gazettal that would allow the fines to be waived, but as yet nothing had been done.

“I think it has to be gazetted for them to waive or disallow the fine,” Mr Penno said. “(Meanwhile) everyone is sitting quiet.”

The practice of waiting until the end of the season to reconcile their accounts previously allowed SA irrigators to avoid buying water during the peak of summer, when prices and demand were high, deferring repayment until late autumn when prices had dropped.

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