Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank ministers Plibersek and Bowen for the work being done in the environment and energy portfolios, noting that more has been done under this government than under any previous, particularly in the last decade. People in my electorate of Boothby and those in South Australia more broadly are very concerned about water security and the impact climate change is having on our state. In South Australia we normally see the break of the season on Anzac Day. Anzac Day comes and goes and then it rains. But not this year. Following on from a rainless February and a largely dry March, where we only had three millimetres of rain recorded, the February-to-April period was the driest year since 1923 and—pardon the pun—it was a hot topic.

South Australians are very interested to see the Murray-Darling Basin Plan delivered in full, particularly the environmental flows. We are at the bottom of the river system and we are dependent on our upstream colleagues for water quality and water quantity. South Australia relies on the river Murray for drinking water from towns on the river to as far away as Adelaide and even onto the York and Eyre peninsulas. We also rely on the Murray for agriculture, from irrigators in the Riverland right through to the Murraylands and the mouth.

My friend Sally runs Mundoo Island Station in the Murray mouth at Goolwa, a cattle and sheep station. The farmers on the last station on the Murray Darling River system have long been an environmentalist, as many farmers are, monitoring the water quality around the islands. The Murray mouth gets all the nutrients and contaminants from the entire river system along with the diminished flows, leading to water that is too concentrated to sustain life. Water quality is not only important for the environment, keeping in mind the Murray mouth is one of the 16 Ramsar wetlands in the Murray-Darling Basin, so an important environment, but Sally is monitoring water quality for their stock. Water that is too full of concentrates is not usable for the cattle, sheep and horses on the station. I'm aware of some of the off-farm water saving projects undertaken in Boothby and I'm keen to know what more can be done in metropolitan Adelaide to contribute to the delivery of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan through managing demand.

I was also pleased to see funding in the budget to ensure that projects being funded under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan are evidence based and produce results. South Australia has been hard done by by previous Liberal governments, federal and state, undermining the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, prioritising eastern states over South Australia. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is about sharing a scarce valuable resource of water between the states. We have heard today they are doubling down on disadvantaging South Australian farmers, communities and residents. I was also pleased to see more funding to ensure integrity in the Murray-Darling Basin Plain system and rebuild trust. Water is very much the lifeblood of our country and nowhere more so than South Australia, the driest state in the driest continent.

To return to climate change, a number of my coastal councils have recently been briefed on sea temperatures, predicted sea level rise and the implications for coastal infrastructure and suburbs. Many of the suburbs of Adelaide are built on former sand dunes and, while they have lovely views of spectacular beaches, they are also very vulnerable to sea level rise. There are parts of Adelaide that already have seawater coming up onto the streets through the storm drains when there is a king tide, particularly if there is a storm at the same time. I personally have worked at the council that deployed sandbags as a regular exercise to protect houses and infrastructure when a king tide was predicted. I have to note that I was not personally deploying sandbags.

A one-in-100-year flood sees significant parts of Adelaide predicted to go underwater through coastal inundation. As we have seen interstate, one-in-100-year floods seem to be coming more and more frequently. Having seen recent media reports about the Brunt Ice Shelf and the retreat of glaciers worldwide, seawater infiltrating under ice caps and an increased rate of melting, I was interested to see the budget allocation for expanding the Antarctic science program and the voyage to the Denman Glacier. I'd like to know from the minister a bit more about the types of scientific studies being done on the glacier, what is being done to better understand what is happening in Antarctica with ice melts and what the expected outcomes of the scientific expedition are expected to be.

Question agreed to.

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