Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

And I had paid money to have him kept there. But, anyway, the Brazilians tried and they failed!

All this highlights the inactivity that has been going on in our nation. I do not think the Labor Party are completely scot-free on this either. Because of the Dick Honan and Prime Minister golf game and teapot, they have been very slack on progressing the renewable energy debate. They will talk solar and they will talk wind, but they do not talk very much on ethanol, biodiesel or biofuels—renewable energy sources that not only could have an enormous impact in terms of the health repercussions in our major cities but also could have an enormous impact on our regional economies. You can see what is happening with the corn price in the United States now—purely driven by biofuels. You can see what is happening in Europe with the canola and vegetable oil price—purely driven by biofuels. You can see what is happening in Brazil—and we are getting a bit of a spin-off from that with the sugar industry, mainly driven from Brazil. It is increasing its ethanol production at the rate of one Australian sugar industry a year. And we are doing nothing. We are standing here letting the market take its course. There is all this talk about what we are going to be doing about climate change—because it has suddenly become an issue since October—but there is nothing really happening in terms of real policy to drive some of these energy targets and to look at a mandate on the usage of fuel.

Another issue is water. I will not go back to the issue I raised yesterday and this morning but, to have any credibility with respect to the future of the Murray-Darling system and the overallocation problems, the government really has to address the issue of tax on the compensation paid for the loss of water entitlement that groundwater users in New South Wales, in particular, have faced. They entered into the arrangement voluntarily and the state and the Commonwealth came together. It is jointly funded. The money is on the table, as the Prime Minister was talking about in his plan. They worked with the irrigators and they reached a sustainable target. Compensation was arranged and, all of a sudden, after the deal was done, someone said, ‘By the way, we’re going to tax you on that.’ So 47 per cent of it could be taken by the Treasurer.

Another issue that I will raise while the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources and the member for Flinders are here is the issue of Lake Alexandrina—right at the end of the Murray. I believe the Prime Minister was there last week. Lake Alexandrina is an absolute disgrace. It is 20 times the size of the electorate of Wentworth. It is artificial. Through the rising water level, it has destroyed vast areas around it. It has banked water up the Murray about 100 kilometres and it has had an enormous impact on the ecosystems—and Adelaide are saying that they do not have any water. The evaporation alone that takes place on Lake Alexandrina is half what the New South Wales cotton industry uses in a year—and the cotton industry has been demonised by all and sundry as the enormous slurper of water in the Murray-Darling system. And what are we doing about the Menindee Lakes? There is mention of it in the Prime Minister’s plan. Where is that water going to be allocated?

I congratulate those members of the government who have actually started to look at Lake Alexandrina, because it is a tragedy. For people in Australia to believe that the Murray-Darling system is not allowing any water into the Murray mouth is just a deception. Lake Alexandrina, this lake at the end of the Murray, is 20 times the size of the electorate of Wentworth, the minister’s seat. You could throw a rock into the ocean from Lake Alexandrina across the Murray mouth. They have built what they call artificial barrages—an artificial structure—at the end to dam it up. As I said, for hundreds of kilometres around it, the salt levels have risen through man’s intervention. So, if we are serious about the Murray-Darling, rather than everybody saying, ‘Let’s start at the top and work down,’ I think there are some things that should be done at the bottom as well. As I said, half the water that the cotton industry in New South Wales uses is actually evaporated away on this vast lake at the end of the Murray-Darling system.

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