South Australia drains Commonwealth’s basin cash: delivers a dribble

NSW and Victoria have done all the heavy lifting on recovering environmental water to the Murray Darling Basin, while South Australia gains federal funds to deliver a dribble.

Federal Governments, past and present, have poured almost $1.2 billion into South Australian water projects, but very little has been recovered for the environment.

SOUTH Australia has delivered just 61 gigalitres of water savings to the environment, in return for almost $1.2 billion in federal funding for water infrastructure projects.

The investment equates to Australian tax payers handing over almost $20,000 for each megalitre the SA Government has delivered.

In contrast the Commonwealth has invested $953m in Victoria’s Connections project to gain 204GL of high reliability water entitlements at an average of $4671 a megalitre, while in NSW equivalent water savings have been delivered for about $6000/ML.

online artwork dec 9 water table

Of the $1.2 billion invested in SA, $120 million has gone into pipelines to secure water for vineyards surrounding the Lower Lakes, without any water returned to the environment.

Contracts for other SA projects similarly show no water was returned to the Commonwealth for the environment, despite many being funded from more than $7 billion for water recovery under the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

While Victoria had to go it alone on financing a desalination plant for Melbourne, South Australia received $328 million from the federal MDB Plan funding pool to build its Adelaide desalination plant in return for 6GL of water for the environment.

Other federal funding allocations to SA that were not linked to water recovery, with many aimed at booting environmental health, via fencing, revegetation, regulating water on to floodplains and managing acid sulfate soils.

As recently as September this year Federal Water Minister Keith Pitt allocated another $37.6 million to the SA Government to improve wetland health, without the need to deliver water savings to the Commonwealth.

The investments have angered the NSW Government, given the reluctance of the Federal Government to invest in similar works in the upstream states.

“This is just the next round of inside deals with South Australia delivering zero or very little water back to the basin – yet the Commonwealth and South Australia have refused the same courtesy to other basin states,” NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey said.

“We need an explanation as to why South Australia is held to one standard and the rest of us to another.”

SA Water Minister David Speirs said: “the NSW Water Minister should worry less about SA and focus more on fixing the issues in her own state”.

“Once again Ms Pavey’s claims are inaccurate and instead of spreading misinformation she should get on with delivering her part of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.”

An SA Government spokesman said some projects had provided water “either through return of entitlements to the Commonwealth or a water recovery offset – but many were funded as emergency responses to the Millennium Drought”.

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