Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much for showing your ability to count, those on the opposition side. I will be coming to numbers in a minute. On 7 October the government commenced a tender to purchase water entitlements from willing sellers in the Murray-Darling Basin, providing environmental benefits to RAMSAR listed wetlands along the River Murray such as the Lower Lakes, the Coorong, the Chowilla floodplain near Renmark and the Barmah-Millewa Forest near Echuca. So the government is delivering on bringing improvements to the river systems of the Murray-Darling Basin.

The question now I must ask, through you, Mr Speaker, is: what did the coalition achieve in 11 years? Now let us count what happened in 11 years. Not one single drop of water was recovered directly under the Living Murray program. I urge the opposition to count that number—not one single drop of water was recovered directly under the Living Murray program. In fact the coalition woke up late to the issue of water when the former Prime Minister announced the national water plan for security 10 months before he lost office.

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