John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

I will provide what information I can to Senator Fisher in response to her question. I can inform the Senate that on 10 September the New South Wales government reached agreement with Clyde Agriculture to purchase the land and associated water rights of Toorale Station for some $23.75 million. The purchase of Toorale Station in New South Wales is in accordance with the principles of buying from willing sellers at market prices and will be assisted through a substantial grant from the Commonwealth to New South Wales for this purpose.

The purchase of Toorale Station will return an average of 20 billion litres of water to the Darling River each year, peaking at up to 80 billion litres in flood years. I can say that significant environmental assets that will benefit from this purchase include some wetlands of national importance at Menindee Lakes as well as the Darling River itself. Of course the recent CSIRO sustainable yields audit for the Barwon-Darling system also found that the middle zone of the Darling River, between Bourke and Menindee Lakes, is in poor condition. When the water-sharing plans for the Warrego and Darling rivers are finalised, Toorale Station’s 14 billion litre per year water entitlement and flood plain harvesting rights will be transferred to the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder to boost environmental flows in the northern Murray-Darling Basin.

In relation to the second part of Senator Fisher’s question, which goes to the Sugarloaf pipeline, I can inform the Senate that the Victorian government has provided assurances that there will be no reduction in flows to the environment, and particularly to the Murray, as a consequence of this particular project. I can also say to the Senate that the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Mr Garrett, has imposed conditions to ensure that those assurances from the Victorian state government are met. Specifically, it is a condition of Mr Garrett’s approval that no water can be taken from savings allocated to the Living Murray Initiative, from the Water for Rivers entitlements or from environmental reserves and that all water-savings projects supplying the pipeline are compliant with the EPBC Act. The proponent has identified water savings in allocations for the first year of the pipe’s operation in 2010, including savings achieved from the Central Goulburn 1 to 4 projects, the Shepparton Modernisation Project and a water quality reserve not allocated to environmental projects (Time expired)