Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare and Early Childhood Learning) Share this | Hansard source

I very strenuously disagree with your amendments and I am delighted that on this side of the House, when in government, will be able to introduce a cap on buyback that effectively negates the nonsense that you are putting forward in your amendments. As I said, we came a long way to accept the bill. The minister knows how difficult that was. The cap on buyback that the coalition will introduce in government will mean that anything above 1,500 gigalitres will have to be realised by efficiencies. That at least will mean that the destructive crippling buybacks that have affected the communities of Farrer so very badly will not continue under a coalition government.

It will mean proper investigations—and I make this point too—through a constraints management strategy to manage areas permanently under flood—where red gums are dying because they have got their roots in water nine months of the year, where areas that have previously been town beaches, camping areas and areas for general amenity are just simply at a low-level flood line—and it would actually carry out a proper socioeconomic analysis. The coalition understands the need for that. If the minister accepts that these things are possible, then those socioeconomic analyses and the proper constraints management and the dollars to do that should have been contained in this legislation and his remarks.

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