WONG: It's very good to be here in Renmark with Minister Maywald and also with Mike Kelly to announce $30 million of funding for a salt interception program — yet another example of what we can do in the Murray-Darling Basin when governments are prepared to work together. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: All right, what benefits are we likely to see from this?

WONG: As we were talking about previously, this is a scheme which they project will intercept about a 100 tonnes of salt a day. That's salt that is not going into the river. That's obviously of benefit not just to the environment, but to all of us here in South Australia who rely on the River for our livelihood and for our drinking water. It's a very good project. I understand about 52 bores, I was told by the gentlemen who had been working on it, to be sunk or being sunk over there and a substantial amount of interception obviously per annum.

JOURNALIST: It's going to take, expected to be about three years before it's up and running…

WONG: In total.

JOURNALIST: When will we start seeing…

WONG: I think that the briefing is probably going to be better at explaining the detail of the roll-out and Karlene may want to jump in here. But my understanding is that it is going to take up to three years to get up to full capacity. Karlene, did you want to…?

MAYWALD: It's started. If you go over and have a look on the Murtho Road at the moment, the purple pipes are being laid as we speak. The collection and disposal pipelines are being built. The pipeline that will go underneath the river has actually started — that will take about ten weeks to finish. It's about 18 months to finish the collection and disposal pipelines and then there will be the sinking of the 52 bores and they will be progressively connected to the system. So full commissioning of the system will take about three years. It's a very, very big project. It's $30 million worth of investment and it's a project that will have substantial benefits to the irrigation and also for the environment.

JOURNALIST: I know there's a feeling that the growers really want to be able to talk about the issues they are facing here. How are you going to be engaging with the local community?

WONG: Well I do have meetings, which I hope to get away from here to go to shortly, with a range of representatives from the irrigation sector. So we obviously have a lot of dialogue across the Basin with different parts of the industry and also local government. But I'm looking forward to having another discussion with local industry today.

JOURNALIST: Minister you spoke about the great sign that this is collaboration between the states and a very positive result. Obviously in other aspects we've seen a lack of collaboration and that's been quite destructive. And from our community we're hearing calls that there needs to be, I guess, a clear decision and some leadership from the Federal Government to make sure that doesn't impede what the ultimate aim is. What are you doing on that?

WONG: The clear decision and leadership from the Federal Government is a $12.9 billion plan — Water for the Future. The leadership is hammering out an agreement with the States that will enable a Basin-wide plan and for the first time the Commonwealth minister having sign-off on the Basin cap. We know this is a major adjustment; we are in the midst of the largest adjustment in the Murray-Darling Basin in the nation's history. And that is going to be — it is difficult — but we are making real progress and we will continue to purchase water. We will continue to roll out projects.

We're very pleased that we have been able to work very closely with the South Australian Government to get some projects up and running very quickly. These are important investments and they are all about making sure we prepare for the adjustment that we know is coming. That we know we will have to do more with less. We'll have to adjust for a future where we are likely to see less water than we have historically.

JOURNALIST: Do you feel though that you can convince all of the States to put that aside and really achieve what you want to achieve?

WONG: It's always a role of federal governments to keep on working with the States. Obviously States have different interests. I see my role of Federal Minister as needing to talk about what our common interests are. We share one Basin and whilst we might have different views about the best way forward, we have to operate as one Basin and that means contributions from all of us. It means not just State governments working together; it also means local communities and local governments.

One of the announcements I've made in the last few days is the second round of our local communities program, what we call Strengthening Basin Communities. It's $200 million for local government and also local water providers to provide for planning, for a future where we're likely to see less water and also for water efficiency and water savings. These are the sorts of investments we are prepared to make as the Federal Government and that's the way in which we'll continue to show leadership.

JOURNALIST: When will that be put in place, sorry, that last project you mentioned?

WONG: The $200 million? That's been announced for some time. I announced the second part of that yesterday. The first part of that was grants for local government where local government can apply to us for grants to assist them in planning for a future where they are likely to see less water. That was in direct response to discussions that we've had with Members of Parliament but also with local communities about the need to ensure that local communities could have a sense of where they wanted to go. This is about investment to help them with that planning.

The second aspect of that which I announced yesterday is for local government or other water providers within the Basin who may want to apply for funding for water saving opportunities whether they are recycling, stormwater harvest and capture, these sorts of water saving measures that the Federal Government is also willing to fund. We're very pleased that many local governments are already looking to make applications. We'd encourage Basin communities to do so.

JOURNALIST: As you mentioned, we're going to be trying to deal with less water but the population is growing. How can we secure food security and do you think the Murray-Darling Basin can continue as the country's food bowl?

WONG: Absolutely. And the best way to ensure food security is to ensure we are prepared for that future. And that's what we are doing. We have to invest on-farm and off-farm to increase our efficiencies. We have to improve our management of the Basin and we have to make sure that we can have strong viable irrigation industries into the future. That's why we're investing now and that's the best way to ensure food security.

JOURNALIST: Thank you.

WONG: Thanks everyone.

ENDS