Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources) Share this | Hansard source

For more than 100 years the management of our greatest surface water and ground water system, the Murray-Darling Basin, has been managed—or should I say mismanaged—by four states. This is a relic of Federation—the federal compact. Back in the 1890s, far-sighted political leaders, particularly those from South Australia—as we know, people from downstream always have a particular perspective on water matters—pleaded for there to be federal management of the river. At the Constitutional Convention in 1898, Sir Josiah Symon, pleading with the New South Welshman and the Victorians, said: ‘Surely, in the name of all that is federal, the Murray should be controlled by the federal jurisdiction.’ Sir George Reid, the portly Premier of New South Wales, rose to his feet, roaring with laughter, and said: ‘Why, throw yourself on our charity as you have always done. We’ll treat you generously.’ And there it was. Nothing was done for more than 100 years.

Wherever you went in the Murray-Darling Basin you saw the signs of overallocation, mismanagement and states managing water on the basis that any drop that crossed the border was a drop wasted. We have lived through that; we have seen that. Wherever you went, people would say, ‘If only they’d got it right at Federation,’ or ‘If we were writing the Constitution afresh, we’d put this all under Commonwealth control.’ Everybody said that, but only the Prime Minister, John Howard, was prepared to take the step to take this dysfunctional anomaly from our constitutional past out of the too-hard basket, put it on the table for action and say, ‘The time has come to get these rivers right, to get these massive groundwater systems right, to get the overallocation corrected and to ensure that our irrigation is the most efficient in the world,’ and put the money on the table to enable us to do that. That is the national water plan.

Of course, the plan does not extend simply to the Murray-Darling Basin. Naturally the bulk of the money will be spent there, because that is where at least 80 per cent of our irrigated agriculture is found and that is where the bulk of our water problems are found, but the $6 billion part of this program for irrigation efficiency will be available right across Australia. So this funding will be available for irrigation areas in Western Australia, in Queensland and in Tasmania. There have been great steps taken, I might say, in irrigation areas outside the basin. I particularly commend the work of the Harvey Irrigation Area, south of Perth.

This is a national plan, a visionary plan. It has been welcomed by every side of politics. The member for Kingsford Smith even went so far in his enthusiasm as to say it was Labor Party policy. I invited him to show me the Labor Party policy document that called for the Commonwealth to take over the Murray-Darling Basin. I have not seen it yet. I do not think it exists.

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