Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The comprehensive bipartisan report Of drought and flooding rains: inquiry into the impact of the Guide to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was welcomed, understandably so, by all those who want Australian farmers to continue to grow the food to feed, and fibre to clothe, our nation and its people. The key word in my opening sentence was 'bipartisan'. The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Regional Australia comprises eight members of parliament; four supplementary members were added for the purposes of this inquiry. The inquiry committee comprised six Labor MPs, four Liberals, the Independent member for New England as chair and me, a National.

Given that the 253-page report was unanimously agreed to by committee members, it is now crucial, essential and obligatory that the federal government adopt the 21 recommendations contained therein. Anything less would be an insult to the bipartisan outcome of eight months of hard work by committee members, who drove and flew many thousands of kilometres, up hill and down dale, through four states to listen to people who shared their views on how to achieve healthy rivers while at the same time preserving regional communities. The people have spoken. People from all walks of life—irrigation farmers, business people, mayors, environmentalists, scientists, clergy—you name a profession and we heard from someone in that occupation. We heard heartfelt words from a brave little girl and we heard from those in the twilight of their lives—those who have seen more than the average numbers of droughts and flooding rains. We listened, and Hansard dutifully recorded, what they all had to say. The committee's dedicated secretariat then drilled down into all the detail provided and, with considerable input from members, came up with a draft document which was then, meeting after meeting, line by line, finetuned into this report. It was not easy to reach consensus. It took hours of robust debate, argument and sometimes nitpicking to reach agreement. But at the end it was agreed to. It was accepted by all committee members. Bipartisanship was achieved.

I mentioned earlier that the committee had a multiparty membership. Members came from electorates representing the eastern mainland states, with four from New South Wales, four from Victoria, one from Queensland; and the deputy chair hails from Tasmania. Significantly, the committee also included two MPs from South Australia—appropriately, one from each side of the political divide. Therefore, communities from the top of the basin to the Murray mouth were represented. Therefore, the views of all concerned were invited, listened to, heeded and reported. Therefore, the government now has a duty to accept the people's verdict, the regional Australia committee's findings and implement the recommendations. The government needs to do this forthwith—no deliberating, no delay, no stalling. Do it now. Put in place the 21 recommendations. This is too important to put off.

Chief among the recommendations is the immediate halt to the government's non-strategic, haphazard buybacks and the necessity to take a more targeted approach to water buybacks which prioritises the lowest possible impact. This government has generated so much uncertainty by continuing to buy water from desperate sellers rather than willing sellers.

Another important recommendation focuses on greater investment in on- and off-farm water savings projects. There was $5.8 billion set aside by the former coalition government in the 2007 Water Act for infrastructure projects, but up until now only $68 million of this has been spent which has actually delivered water—21 gigalitres—into the basin, whereas federal Labor has disgracefully and unjustly spent $1.5 billion on water buybacks. The Prime Minister talks of a patchwork economy. Non-strategic water buybacks lead to a patchwork irrigation community—the dreaded so-called Swiss cheese effect.

It is a true test of this government, which simply has to follow the advice so carefully and diligently constructed for it by a committee headed by an MP whose vote is integral to Labor retaining power. If federal Labor ignores the recommendations of the committee headed by the Independent member for New England then how could he possibly continue to support this minority government? He keeps the Prime Minister in the Lodge. She now needs to provide regional communities within the Murray-Darling Basin with certainty by agreeing to what is being called the Windsor report. If the Prime Minister fails to do so, she will be failing regional Australia. She will be failing everyone who testified at the 12 regional hearings. She will be failing all those who contributed the 643 submissions and 85 supplementary submissions, and she will be failing the man who shored up her tenuous and illegitimate hold on the top job after the hung parliament last year. I hope the Prime Minister realises this. The consequences of doing nothing will be dire. They will be dire for people in the Murray-Darling Basin and they ought to be dire for the Prime Minister if she lets down the member for New England, whose reputation is at stake with what happens to this report.

I commend the committee members for the effort and knowledge they contributed to bring about this report. It was not an easy task. I especially compliment the member for New England for his professionalism in leading the committee, particularly since he came into the role at a heated and difficult time.

Had it not been for the passion and pride shown by those who live and work in the Coleambally and Murrumbidgee irrigation areas in my electorate, the water debate would certainly, I have no doubt, have headed in a different direction. More than 7,000 locals turned up at the 14 October Murray-Darling Basin Authority public rally at Griffith's Yoogali Club. They shouted, they protested and they burned copies of the guide. They were angry, frustrated and demanded answers. They had every reason to feel the way they did. There had been no consultation by the government or the MDBA prior to the 8 October release of the original guide—a flawed document if ever there was one. Riverina people told the MDBA, then headed by Mike Taylor, who ran the meeting, that they were not going to sit back and watch an independent authority, the government or anyone else destroy their communities with an ill-conceived guide which returned too much water to the environment without proper scientific validation or justification. They were not going to let it happen then and they will not let it happen in the future either, let me assure you. If the government lets the opportunity of the Windsor report slip from its grasp, if the MDBA's again delayed draft does not measure up to what its new chairman, Craig Knowles, has promised and if this government legislates a final plan which in any way compromises Australia's ability to feed itself then the protest rally which will result at this place will make the Griffith MDBA rally look like a parish picnic in the park.

Be warned: people in regional Australia are fed up with being told what to do and how to live their lives by a Labor government beholden to the unrepresentative swill that is the Greens. The Greens stood for 150 lower house seats at the 21 August election and won just one. That does not give them a mandate to dictate to this parliament what should and should not happen in any water reform. The Greens hold nine out of 76 Senate seats. They do not, as their leader, Bob Brown, would like to have us all think, have control of this country. The coalition is often accused by those on the other side of trying to wreck everything. If ever a party had an agenda to do that, it is the Greens.

The first and most important job this nation has is to feed its people. You cannot do that by taking away the ability, requirement and right of farmers to grow food. You cannot do that by sending all the water down the river in volumes as demanded by the Greens and their loopy environmental friends, including the Wentworth group, such that regional towns would be permanently underwater and such that the flora and fauna in precious iconic sites would be drowned. People need to be reasonable, sensible, fair dinkum, pro-Australian.

The Australian Farm Institute says that every Griffith farmer feeds 150 Australians and 450 foreigners every year. How on earth will they be able to fulfil that role if they do not have the water to grow food? Within hours of the fiery Griffith meeting ending, the government had tasked the new regional Australia committee with conducting an inquiry into the impact of the guide to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. If the government does the right thing and accepts the Windsor report, then the people of the Riverina can rightly take much of the credit for saving this nation's water situation.

The Riverina is the food basket of this great nation. Next year my region will celebrate a centenary of irrigation. What a wonderful milestone—a hundred years of service to Australia; 10 decades of producing the world's finest food.

During the many hours of evidence heard by our committee, one of the most compelling statements came from Coleambally Irrigation Co-operative Chief Executive Officer, John Culleton. He quoted a local farmer who said:

I'm not here to survive; I came here 30 years ago to thrive.

Mr Culleton continued:

So all this talk about survival is to essentially say to us that the best we can look forward to is to struggle to survive, and that is an unacceptable prospect for the people of this region.

Indeed, it is. The Riverina's future, facing considerable uncertainty in recent months, may be saved by this parliamentary inquiry and the Windsor report, which has urged the federal government to put regional communities first in any decision about water management. The report received widespread support. This is what some of key players in my area had to say. Griffith Mayor, Councillor Mike Neville:

The report provides a triple bottom line approach. The Government now has to show it is serious about Australia's foodbowl—Australia's heart and lungs—and declare that growing food is a priority.

Leeton Mayor, Councillor Paul Maytom:

I am extremely happy with the outcome of the report. It is an excellent report and the committee has taken the commonsense approach taking on initiatives that the original guide did not.

I feel that the committee has given an excellent outcome and hopefully the minister and the MDBA look at the report seriously and this will give the people of the MIA a more prosperous future.

Murrumbidgee Irrigation Chairman, Gillian Kirkup:

The recommendations made by the committee demonstrate that they have heard our concerns and those of Basin communities.

The MI welcomes the committee's key recommendations.

We stand committed to working with the MDBA to develop a balanced plan that delivers good environmental outcomes without compromising regional Australia.

New South Wales Farmers Association President, Charles Armstrong:

We have welcomed the recommendations resulting from the House of Representatives' inquiry into the impacts of the Guide to the proposed MDBA plan.

A number of the 21 recommendations echo concerns outlined in the Association's submission.

The report is critical in the development of the Basin Plan. It's essential the MDBA carefully review the recommendations before releasing the Draft Plan.

Murray Irrigation General Manager, Anthony Couroupis:

The report contains sensible recommendations that would see better outcomes for community and regional economies without compromising reasonable ecological objectives.

It is clear the committee has listened and concluded that the concerns of communities expressed after the launch of the guide were significant and genuine.

Southern Irrigators' Chairman, Ted Hatty:

On face value, if the recommendations in the Windsor report are followed, there is a better chance to achieve a balanced outcome for irrigators, Basin communities and the environment.

National Irrigators Council Chief Executive Officer, Danny O'Brien:

Tony Windsor and his bipartisan committee have struck the right balance here.

They have clearly listened to communities; a far cry from what the MDBA went through last year and they've delivered a good set of recommendations.

New South Wales Irrigators' Council CEO, Andrew Gregson:

I welcome the report and I am pleased to see some of the ideas put forward by irrigators have been embraced.

It will certainly have a calming effect because people will see that the concerns that they've raised have been listened to. The real proof, however, comes when the draft basin plan is released, to see if the MDBA has listened, has had time to listen and has had time to incorporate what it is that the Windsor inquiry has said.

I will conclude with the remarks of the youngest person to give evidence. This was testimony from a schoolgirl who at the original Griffith rally sat near the front holding a sign which read: 'Keep my family on our farm.' She became, I believe, the face of the region's fight for a fair future. This is what Teneeka Andreazza courageously said at the regional Australia committee's 25 January hearing:

I am nine years old and I live on a farm with my family. I have lived on the farm my whole life and cannot imagine what we would do or where we would go if we had to move away, so please help us and do not let them take our water. Thank you.

Prime Minister, please heed Teneeka's heartfelt words.

See this speech in context