Water flows are all Wong

FEDERAL Water Minister and South Australian Senator Penny Wong has diverted 62 per cent of the environmental water bought by the Federal Government to her home state.

In opening the taps on a federally-funded $95 million pipeline for 100 wine-grape growers at South Australia's Langhorne Creek last week, Senator Wong said most of the Commonwealth water for the environment was used on sites in South Australia.

"In terms of the benefit for South Australia what we should remember is in the 2008-09 year, some 62 per cent of the water the Commonwealth held was in fact utilised on sites in South Australia," she said.

The bulk of funding under the Federal Government's National Urban Water and Desalination Plan has also gone to South Australia.

Of the $86 million allocated under the plan to stormwater harvesting and re-use projects, $66.3 million has gone to South Australia, $17.2 million to Victoria, $3.3 million to Queensland and nothing to NSW.

Another $30.2 million has gone to a South Australian water recycling project in Adelaide parklands and $20 million to Barwon Water's recycling project in Victoria.

While Victoria and NSW have been promised more than $1 billion each from the fund and a share of further grants for on-farm irrigation works, no money has yet been handed over.

Yet the South Australian Government has been given quick access to $328 million of federal funds for its desalination plant.

Victoria has received no federal funds for the Wonthaggi desalination plant.

Victorian Farmers Federation water council chairman Richard Anderson said the apparent bias to South Australia reinforced the need for independent assessment and allocation of environmental water.

"It highlights that we need an environmental water plan for the whole basin that's independent and transparent," he said.

But a spokeswoman for Senator Wong said that all environmental watering decisions had been made after consultation with state governments and the Environmental Watering Scientific Advisory Committee, on the basis of agreed, published criteria.