Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

I table supplementary information to a response I previously provided to a question asked by Senator Xenophon and seek leave to have the additional response incorporated into Hansard.

Leave granted.

The answer read as follows—

Question:

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Given that $240 million of this fund is meant to return 40 gigalitres of water to the environment, will the Commonwealth be as innovative with the rules governing the fund as they are in asking river communities in South Australia to be innovative in their approach to optimising water use? For instance, will funding be allocated to projects that assist economies of scale and new tertiary processing facilities?

Answer:

On 28 October 2012, The Hon Tony Burke, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities announced that the Commonwealth had set aside funding of $265 million for water recovery and industry regeneration projects in South Australian River Murray communities. The $265 million consists of:

Funding of up to $1.2 million was approved in June 2012, for the South Australian Government to undertake a feasibility study and to prepare a business case for the proposed River Murray Improvements Program. The final business case has not been received by the Commonwealth to date. The due diligence process will review South Australia's proposal against criteria which have already been agreed by South Australia.

The scope and content of the proposed South Australian Industry Futures Program is still being developed by the South Australian Government and will be subject to due diligence assessment on submission of a business case for the program.

Question:

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Does the government acknowledge the fear of many river communities in South Australia that this $265 million fund may go the same way as the PIIP-SA water infrastructure fund, which has such restrictive, unsuitable and poorly targeted guidelines for funding that, after more than four years, only $14 million of $110 million in the fund has been allocated?

Answer:

The Government does not accept the criticisms of PIIP-SA. It is important to note that PIIP-SA has not conducted further grant rounds because the South Australian Government has sought to use the remaining funds allocated to PIIP-SA for other State Priority Projects.

The Commonwealth is already funding projects which support irrigation communities in the South Australian River Murray. For example, South Australian irrigators were successful in receiving approval of $35 million for on-farm irrigation modernisation under the competitive on-farm program in the Southern Basin. Further funding will flow as and when the new programs pass due diligence, are approved for funding and the required funding agreements are put in place.