Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

I present the explanatory memorandum to the Australian Capital Territory Water Management Legislation Amendment Bill 2013 and move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Australian Capital Territory Water Management Legislation Amendment Bill 2013 (the bill) demonstrates the government's commitment to delivering the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in full and on time. I also want to congratulate both my predecessor and his predecessor for actions taken, particularly Senator Simon Birmingham, who, as parliamentary secretary, has taken the lead on bringing other states across the line, and all of those officials involved in the process.

The bill is a further step to improving the management of Murray-Darling Basin resources by making the appropriate level of government responsible for managing water in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) on a day-to-day basis.

The ACT is part of the Murray-Darling Basin. Under current arrangements, the management of water on national land in the ACT is a Commonwealth function. The ACT government manages water on territory land.

The bill will remove this dual management and streamline arrangements by providing the ACT government with genuine authority to manage all water abstraction in the ACT. This legislative change will also enable the ACT and Commonwealth water abstractors within the ACT to fulfil their obligations under the Basin Plan.

The bill further facilitates the implementation of the Basin Plan by enabling the ACT to fully manage surface waters of the Googong Dam.

Under the Basin Plan, the ACT is required to prepare a water resource plan that covers all the territory's water resources, as well as the Googong Dam. Googong Dam water resources, while managed by the territory for the purposes of supplying water to the territory, are a Commonwealth water resource located on New South Wales land.

Furthermore, through amendments to the Australian Capital Territory (Planning and Land Management) Act 1988 (PALM Act), the Water Act 2007 and the Canberra Water Supply (Googong Dam) Act 1974, this bill provides the appropriate legislative backing for the ACT to prepare a basin plan with a compliant water resource plan.

The Basin Plan was adopted, as the House will know, in November 2012, recognising the importance of restoring health to the Murray-Darling Basin and providing certainty to communities. It takes its origins from the work of predecessors in this House, both Prime Minister Howard and the then Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson, then subsequent minister for the environment, Malcolm Turnbull, and successive ministers on the now opposition benches, whom I recognise and acknowledge for their work.

The Basin Plan provides a national strategy to ensure integrated and comprehensive water resource management throughout the Murray-Darling Basin. The ACT surface and groundwater resources discharge into the Murrumbidgee River.

Water resource management in the ACT has ecological and hydrological impacts and changes the volume of water that is available to other water users not only in the ACT but also in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

Therefore, it is important that the ACT is able to prepare the water resource plan required of it under the Basin Plan. The bill provides the necessary legislative backing for this process.

Once the legislative changes commence, the abstraction of water in the territory will be managed by the territory government under the ACT's Water Resources Act 2007.

This will be achieved by amendments to the Australian Capital Territory (Planning and Land Management) Act 1988 and associated Commonwealth legislative instruments.

This change will allow the territory to cover all of its water resources in its water resource plan, in accordance with its obligations under the Basin Plan.

Furthermore, the bill will also provide appropriate legislative backing for the Googong Dam area to be included in the territory's water resource plan area.

Under the Basin Plan, the territory is required to prepare a water resource plan that covers the Googong Dam as well as all of the territory's water resources. This outcome will be achieved through the amendments to the Water Act 2007.

Finally, the legislation will ensure that the ACT executive has the necessary powers to fully manage the surface waters of the Googong Dam under the territory's Water Resources Act 2007.

This outcome is achieved through the amendments to the Canberra Water Supply (Googong Dam) Act 1974. The aim of this amendment is to ensure that all water resources under territory control are managed under a consistent framework.

The combined effect of these changes is that the territory and Commonwealth water abstractors within the ACT will be able to comply with their obligations under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

This change will not affect any agreements reached by the Commonwealth, New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory governments on the supply of water to Queanbeyan.

I particularly want to say that cooperative, consistent and efficient management arrangements of water abstraction within the ACT will have long-term benefits on the sustainability of water resources within the ACT.

I thank all of those involved as officials, administrators, scientists and water advisers. I acknowledge the work, going backwards, of the Wentworth Group and others who argued so passionately for the Basin Plan.

I commend this bill to the House.

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