John Forrest (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to argue that the House ought not adjourn until it has had an opportunity to be apprised of the dire circumstances confronting Murray Valley irrigators, especially those on the Victorian side in my federal electorate of Mallee. My region of the world, like most of Australia, is now in its sixth year of depressed rainfall and severe drought. In fact, the entire federal division of Mallee has been declared in exceptional circumstances now for its third year and some areas are in their fourth year.

We have never been confronted with this situation before, particularly on the Victorian side, where substantial reductions in licence allocations mean they are just not available. My table grape growers, citrus growers, dried fruit growers, olive growers and vegetable growers—every single one of them—are going to be diabolically affected because it all comes to a head for Victoria this year. Because Victoria is one of those states that has had the best water security allocations, we have been able to defer the pain that has occurred in New South Wales and South Australia to some extent, but this year it comes home to roost.

Last week I urged the Victorian government to get the bad news out there. It is estimated that only 20 per cent of licences can possibly be allocated to landholders because of the absence of winter rainfall, winter snowfall and spring rain. These are diabolical circumstances. My growers are beside themselves and clearly governments are going to have to stand behind these important wealth-creating industries along the Murray Valley because the social fabric and the whole employment system will be affected. Employment is provided on a four-to-one basis through the agricultural and horticultural pursuits that go on along the Murray Valley.

On Monday night, Sunraysia growers are going to have a public meeting. I guess they probably think they have to do that to get government attention. I hope that before that meeting the Victorian government will announce what the allocation is going to be. To their credit they have been waiting to see a best-case scenario. We may have got spring rain, but clearly that is not going to happen. The weather experts tell me that there is a rainfall system coming across, but we have become used to these large systems having forgotten how to rain. It is not going to provide anywhere near enough water to make those allocations anywhere near realistic.

For table grape growers and citrus growers this means that they have to make very painful decisions about which of their 100 acres they are going to excise and not irrigate and let their trees, vines or whatever they are producing die. The repercussion in years ahead will be that they will struggle to re-establish. They are going to need some government support, certainly at the state level and certainly at the federal level—and I am very appreciative of the discussions that the federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is engaging in now to put a safety net under these important wealth creators for the Murray Valley.

The Murray River has run dry in our history before. We know and understand that, but it has been in periods when the nation’s population was at six and seven million. Today it is over 20 million and the pressure on our water systems can no longer cope with shortages. I suppose it reflects poorly on us as parliaments that we have not invested in storage infrastructure. We have a storage upstream of the Hume Weir at Murray Gates which is begging to be constructed. It is in prime, pristine national park country, that is true, but surely the wealth creators of the Murray Valley ought to come first and we ought to tackle the environmental challenges of constructing that Murray Gates dam.

I have also spent the last seven years advocating some solutions. What has happened this year is not new. Blind Freddy could see it happening and we were constantly being warned by our scientific community. The concept of precipitation enhancement around the world is mainstream science, and I am grateful at last, through constant nagging, to have an expert panel of scientists now established in Australia, headed up by Professor Roger Stone, who is the Professor of Climatology and Water Resources at the University of Southern Queensland. That is supported by other scientists and some funding from the Queensland government to establish a project across south-east Queensland. It is now time for other states to follow New South Wales, which approved a project over the Snowy Mountains three years ago. It is now time for Victoria to follow suit.

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