Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was a member of the Tony Windsor chaired Murray-Darling Basin inquiry. During question time the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities said that we, as members of that committee, had been in total agreement with his actions since then and that the recommendations of that committee had been fully taken up. That is not the case, in particular in relation to a triple-bottom-line approach or a strategic water buyback recommendation which stated that there should not be generic buyback of water at all, because it destroys irrigated agriculture. This is a most serious allegation for those of us who worked hard on that committee, and we do ask the government to revisit the recommendations of that inquiry because it is a most significant inquiry for the future of agribusiness in the Basin.

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