Question Without Notice No. 419 asked in the Legislative Council on 17 August 2017 by Hon Adele Farina
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
WATER FOR FOOD PROGRAM — SOUTH WEST
419. Hon ADELE FARINA to the Minister for Regional Development:
I refer to the Water for Food programs at Myalup–Wellington and the southern forest irrigation scheme that have been supported by the McGowan Labor government. Has the federal government made a decision about whether it will support these job‑creating projects or is it more focused on funding projects in the eastern states?
Hon ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank Hon Adele Farina for the question and once again compliment her activism in looking after the interests of horticulturalists in the south west of this state. The member may recall that yesterday I talked about the inequity of federal wild dog funding. Unfortunately, today we received some disappointing news from the federal government. Members might recall, particularly members from the south west, that Hon Dave Kelly, the Minister for Water, wrote to the federal Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, our good friend ''Bro'', Barnaby Joyce, confirming this state's commitment to the Myalup–Wellington and southern forest irrigation scheme projects. We acknowledge that these projects were initiated under the previous government. However, notwithstanding the parlous state of the budget that we found ourselves with, this government made an early determination that we would keep the funding for these two projects, not only because they are in the mix for this federal government funding, but also because they give us the opportunity to increase significantly horticultural production in the Manjimup and Myalup–Wellington area.
We communicated that to the federal government. Our advice from the Department of Water was that these applications, which amounted to a request for $140 million for the Myalup–Wellington project and $39 million for the southern forest irrigation scheme, were certainly within the ballpark of possibility. We believed that because so much of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund has gone to the Murray Darling Basin and so little has come to Western Australia, these two projects offered a real prospect of success. We were thinking, and hoping, that there might at some point be a realisation that some financial equity needs to come to Western Australia. However, we wait in vain. Minister Kelly's office has been advised today that funding under the first round of assessment for those funds has not been approved. We will now go back to the drawing board and work with industry to try to give ourselves a chance in the second round.
Hon Colin Holt: Is that for neither project?
Hon ALANNAH MacTIERNAN: Neither project has passed the first round. We have a real problem. We do not have any National Party members in the federal Parliament. As a result, Western Australia is absolutely missing out on any distributions for those parts of the Water for Food project that are under control of National Party ministers. I ask the member again to get on the phone to ''Bro'' and ask him to deliver a bit of fairness to Western Australia.