Community Panel rejects Government on drains
The State Government has been urged to hear the voice of residents in the state’s South East and ensure that the Government carries the cost of maintaining the drainage network that underpins much of the region’s agriculture and provides substantial environmental benefits.
A Community Panel last week reported to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Ian Hunter, that the drainage network “provides benefits, not just to landholders or even the wider South East community, but to the whole state”.
In a strong rebuttal of State Government plans to charge South East residents up to $6 million for maintenance of the drains, the Community Panel said it “rejects any notion that the South East community be directly charged to fund the ongoing maintenance and operation of the drainage network”.
“The South East Drainage Network is a state-owned asset and the State Government should fully fund its ongoing maintenance and operation,” the Community Panel report says.
The drainage network – which now consists of more than 2500km of drains and flood-ways, incorporating 320 bridges and 2300 culverts – dates from the 1860s and was constructed to drain the water that previously inundated more than half of the South East, an area which is now one of the most agriculturally productive in the state.
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The State Government has covered the maintenance and operating costs for more than 30 years but recently announced that it would only provide $2.2 million of the annual cost, estimated at more than $8 million.
In announcing that earlier drainage rates would be abolished from 1980, the Government of the day stated: “As the state is receiving return from the revenue generated by increased productivity made possible by drainage the Government considers that the maintenance and administration of the system should be financed from state revenue”.
“Consequently the Government has decided to abolish drainage rating the South East, effective from the commencement of the 1980 rating year, as it is a selective tax burden levied on a minority of landholders in the area,” it said.
Business SA welcomed the Community Panel’s recommendations, saying that they carried “a clear message from the South East that its needs must be equally considered alongside the needs of urban South Australians”.
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“While the South East may lie beyond the Adelaide Hills, their voice on this issue has been heard loud and clear and is a stark reminder that we must not bite the hand that feeds us,” Business SA director of policy Rick Cairney said.
“We constantly remind the State Government of the importance of regional economies, and the South East alone contributes $3.4 billion to the state’s economy,” he said.
The drainage network also strongly supports conservation outcomes and currently facilitates 26 gigalitres (GL) of environmental flows to sustain the Coorong. An additional 26 GL is set to be delivered through the South East Flows Restoration Project.
The Community Panel said it “considers that the South East Drainage system will assist the State in meeting its targets under the Murray Darling Basin Agreement (MDBA), as well as providing a significant contribution to the restoration of the environmental health of the Coorong – a RAMSAR site – having significant benefits to the State and the nation”.
It also notes: “The MDBA and Council of Australian Governments (COAG) policies which are binding on the State Government mean that the South East Drainage Network cannot be viewed as principally providing increased productivity to the agricultural community but is vital in meeting the state’s environmental and water management objectives which concern the whole state”.
Minister Hunter will visit the South East on Saturday and will discuss the Community Panel’s recommendations at a public meeting in Naracoorte.
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