Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this very important issue, representing as I do the seat of Maranoa, which covers 95 per cent of the area that is affected under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. The other member who is affected is the federal member for Groom, who has the region around Toowoomba which is impacted by the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

I have long argued the point that there are two systems: one is called the Murray system; the other is the Darling system. They are lumped together for the benefit of talking about the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. From my point of view and that of many irrigators and communities in my electorate, the Darling system is seen as being a totally different ecological system from the Murray system.

Much of the Murray's water comes out of a Mediterranean-type climate. A lot of the water in government storages is from melting snow. The Darling system, on the other hand, and much of the Darling, goes through very arid lands—the rainfall events are irregular and often of high intensity. The rainfall has quite a different impact on the rivers, creeks and streams in the Darling system, which do ultimately contribute some water into the Murray system at the bottom end—but of course there is still one big impediment on the way: the Menindee Lakes. The Menindee Lakes are used as a water storage system for Broken Hill; I understand that. That is one of the things that has to be addressed as part of this whole plan. I recently had the parliamentary secretary, the Hon. Bob Baldwin, and his advisers in my electorate. We went to Dirranbandi, St George, Goondiwindi and on to the Brookstead and Cecil Plains irrigation areas and spoke with users across that area.

I support, as do many of the farmers and irrigators, the 1,500 gigalitre cap that is now being legislated. I think it is currently going through the Senate. We only hope the other side of the House will support that—as a maximum, not as the target. I also note that the irrigators in my electorate—particularly those in the Lower Balonne and along the Macintyre, which I share with the member for Parkes—are frustrated and reform fatigued. This has been going on for the last 10 to 15 years. A plan came in under John Anderson, the Deputy Prime Minister under John Howard, to look at how we could cooperate with the states so that this issue, instead of being a political one, could reach an outcome that was sustainable and gave certainty to irrigators—because certainty for irrigators also means greater certainty for the businesses in those towns that are so dependent on the irrigation farmers and the welfare that is created from water. Water is wealth in these areas, never more so than in the recent drought years. The dryland agricultural sector is confronting that right now—if you have water, you can generate income. That income creates jobs and those jobs create wealth for the people of the towns.

Water users from the Lower Balonne have said to me and the parliamentary secretary that they cannot afford to lose any more water from the Lower Balonne. They say that we have to get smarter and look at how we deal with meeting the targets, that we need to look above the Beardmore Dam—right up as far as Dalby, perhaps—to see whether there are some allocations that could be purchased without having an impact on the general economy of the towns which are so dependent on the water.

Over the last 15 years, these communities on the Condamine-Balonne system have gone through water allocation management plans—referred to as WAMPs—and resource operational plans. They gave back 15 per cent of their allocation without compensation. Their allocations now are events based allocations. What that means is that the event and the time of the year that the water flows through the river will determine whether they can harvest water or not. Simply put, at this time of year, if an event came through, the idea at a certain level is that it would go through as environmental water—because it may be nine months before we get into a more regular season, the summer rainfall, when common sense tells that you will get a similar event and you can therefore harvest water. They have provided that as the model for the way they harvest water. Only recently there was a very small flow-through of the Balonne below St George that came down the Maranoa River. That went through. Notwithstanding that they needed water, they let it go through for environmental purposes. It went on down through to Bourke in the electorate of the member for Parkes. They did not harvest it. They let it go through for environmental purposes. So they are working with us. If only some of these decisions could be managed at a local level at the time the water events occur. They believe, and they have said this to me, that you could get a good outcome for the environment if you only took some of those decisions locally—when the event occurs and at the time of year it occurs.

The other issue has been the purchase of the entire water licence from Ballandool, south of Dirranbandi, without any replacement for the impact that that would have on the community. That purchase of water has meant—and that has gone to the Environmental Water Holder—that it has gone. Businesses have said to me that up to a third of their business was lost the moment that was purchased from Ballandool. The crop sprayers and aerial contractors from St George put off two pilots and two other workers, because a third of their business was related to the work on Ballandool Station and their irrigation operations. But there has been no money invested in alternative businesses to assist in that structural adjustment—in other words, it has been a stranded asset and it has had a big impact on these communities.

When you see a third of the businesses in your town affected because of one decision to buy back a significant quantity of water that provided, obviously, cash to the seller—the land title has been separated from the water entitlement—it has left a lasting impact on these communities that have been built up through agriculture but also the irrigation industry.

In Goondiwindi—and perhaps the member for Parkes might touch on this issue—we share the Macintyre River. Recently, and not long before I was there with the parliamentary secretary, we had a situation where, on the Queensland side, the licence has been issued by the Queensland government—the pump water—but on the other side, because licences have been issued by the New South Wales government, they could not pump. That creates that across-river anger and stupidity in the system that we are trying to reform and change. But I can assure you, once again, on one side, they are able to harvest in a very difficult and dry season; and, on the other side, they could not. This has to be addressed.

I will go to the Warrego River in the west of my electorate, which comes down from Charleville, Wyandra, Cunnamulla and eventually flows into the Darling just near Bourke. There is no plan at the moment for any water on the Warrego to be required for environmental purposes. In fact, 8,000 megalitres was provided by the former Queensland Labor government without any compensation or consideration of what impact that might have on the towns way back in about 2006-07. But the water users of Cunnamulla have got more water than they can effectively utilise. They would like some Healthy HeadWaters money, if they could, or be able to sell some of their allocation upstream of the town of Cunnamulla. That would enable them, if they were able to trade it up or sell the licence upstream where there may be another opportunity for other users, particularly around Charleville, to develop some economic activity and wealth that would be created from that.

I have touched with the minister on that issue and I know that he has listened to me. I only hope that we can deal with some issues like the Warrego, quite apart from all the other issues dealing with the Condamine–Balonne system, the Macintyre system and the Mooney system. They are totally different systems from the Murray. We have got to look at the impact that it has already had and we need to resolve this quickly. I call on the Labor Party to support this side of the House as we try to manage this system and not lose jobs and wealth in our community.

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