891 ABC

INTERVIEW: 891 ABC: Lower lakes / Wellington Weir

August 5th, 2008

Mark Parnell, Greens MLC (891ABC 11.25-11.30) Lower lakes / Wellington Weir

(Abraham: Mark Parnell is Greens Mp in the Upper House, which strictly makes him an MLC … he was at the Goolwa meeting last night, part of a number of meetings being run by Karlene, well she’s speaking at a number of these meetings around the Lake and River areas …)

… I was going to give Karlene a big rap for a well conducted meeting and for a high level of openness and transparency … then I choked on my muesli this morning hearing you talking to her to find that … they are much further down the path with this Wellington Weir than we were lead to believe … I only got one question in last night … and my question was have you given up on getting freshwater flows down the river to save the Lower Lakes and her response was that they had absolutely not given up … yet I have trouble reconciling that with this information that you’ve got out today to say that Cabinet’s signed off and there’s $30 million being spent … I reckon they have given up … the Wellington Weir … make no doubt about it, it will destroy the environment of the Lower Lakes, it will change it irreversibly … it’s a freshwater environment and once you’ve let that saltwater in, because I think that’s the flipside to the weir … you’d block the water at Wellington and then you let the saltwater in from the Murray Mouth.

(Abraham: … there’s no doubt about that …)

(Bevan: Isn’t that the purpose for the Weir?)

The main purpose of the Weir is keeping the water levels high enough so the pumps can operate … a water security for Adelaide measure.

(Bevan: It’s also to stop the acidification creeping up the … river.)

Absolutely … if you don’t let the freshwater down to avoid acidification it’s pretty much inevitable that they’ll have to let the saltwater in … what might just seem a small little project is monumental … what we have to ask ourselves (remembering that this is the terminus of the continent's major river system and here we are about to irreversibly destroy it) … why didn’t the Minister say this last night at the meeting with these hundreds of local people in the room.

(Bevan: Well the Minister told our listeners this morning that the Government signed off on this last week.)

That’s’ right and those of us on the steps at the rally didn’t know, those of us last night didn’t know … the Minister’s probably just finished her Murray Bridge meeting and I think she’s down at Langhorne Creek … this afternoon … that’s the question.

(Abraham: … isn’t this the hard grind of Government … you’re sitting up in the Upper House, you can take pot shots at them, you’re never going to be in Government, no offence, barring miracles … let’s just say it’s highly unlikely in the foreseeable future … the Government doesn’t want to do this … these are the tough decision of Government … if they didn’t set aside the $30 million and do this and were caught really short, and some would argue that they have already been caught short and this is almost a panic measure, some are saying that, including the Opposition … they’d be run out of town on a rail wouldn’t they?)

… I accept the genuineness with which Karlene and the others say they don’t want to do this … my pot shots aren’t at the Government, the State Government … just for this decision … I think there is a difference between preliminary planning and concept work and actually starting physical works, but really the finger and fingers point everywhere in this debate. The fingers do ultimately point to Canberra and they point to that level of Government that has all of the resources, all of the revenue … we know there’s water in the system, we know there’s money in the coffers and yet the Government seems to be paralysed to be able to just buy that water, put it back into the system and a chunk of it will get down to the Lower Lakes, that’s really the tragedy.

(Bevan: Doesn’t it get down to … that we as a nation are saying that we are prepared to use water to keep crops alive that need to be kept alive, if people are to make a living, and plant new crops, which are seasonal, such as cotton and rice … we are prepared to spend our resources, our water resources and our dollars in that way and we are not prepared to spend them on keeping an environment alive in the Lower Lakes and the Coorong, it’s as simple as that.)

… that appears to be the message … the long term debate that we will have will question permanent crops versus annual crops … whether we can have as many oranges and grapes as we’ve currently got … the problem now is this urgent need for water now … it’s ahead of these longer term decisions we’re going to have to make … it is a shame when things come down to the economy versus the environment … when you’re in a short term crisis situation it is very difficult for the environment to win and that looks like what’s happening at the moment.

(Bevan: … thanks.)

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