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

Can I make a few points in reply to the comments that have been made by opposition members and point out to them something which has so far escaped their comprehension in the debate on this bill—that is, prior to the passage of the Water Act 2007, the opposition leader’s legislation, the government knew full well about Premier Bracks’s decision to construct this pipeline. They knew full well about it, but they chose to do nothing about it.

We have had opposition members in here lecturing us about the morality of dealing with water. Can I point out to members opposite that they did nothing substantial about water for a decade and more. What has changed since then is that they are now in opposition and they are basically going through an exercise of pulling stunts, scoring cheap political points, bringing commentary into the House which is either inaccurate or untrue. The fact is that the agreement that was secured earlier this year—the historic agreement through the Council of Australian Governments—to undertake the reform of the Murray-Darling Basin was, at this point, the kind of reform that both the states and the Commonwealth needed, but that the previous government, the Liberal-National Party coalition, was simply incapable of doing. That is the point that those opposite do not seem to understand.

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