Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I note in relation to the comments of the previous speaker that the Labor government previously tasked the Productivity Commission to report on the acquisition of water entitlements and required that water entitlements be acquired at the lowest price possible. The Productivity Commission itself has written various other reports on the water industry over the past 10 years that have been very well received. I would add those remarks as comments following the previous speaker.

On 25 September 2014 the government introduced the National Water Commission (Abolition) Bill 2014 into the Senate to abolish the National Water Commission with effect from January 2015. This gives effect to the government's 2014-15 budget commitment to abolish the National Water Commission. Ongoing reporting functions will be transferred to the Productivity Commission. The bill was referred to the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, which handed down its report on 24 November. The government has considered the report as well as submissions made by stakeholders and has made a number of refinements to the bill due to that committee process and has responded to the report.

The National Water Commission was established as an independent statutory body by the Howard government under the National Water Commission Act 2004. The National Water Commission was responsible for assisting in the implementation of the Intergovernmental Agreement on a National Water Initiative and for providing advice to the Commonwealth and Council of Australian Governments on national water reform. It is worthwhile remembering that the National Water Initiative is not limited to the Murray-Darling Basin. The work done by the National Water Commission in conjunction with the non-basin states should not be overlooked. In particular, I would like to thank Elaine Gardner of my home state of Western Australia, former chairperson of the irrigator owned and run Ord Irrigation Cooperative, for the work she did as a commissioner on the National Water Commission. Elaine brought a broader perspective to the National Water Commission, and some of her efforts have come to fruition in the funding for the development of northern Australia in the budget.

The principal role of the National Water Commission was to provide oversight and assessment of national water reforms. Since the Australian government and all state and territory governments agreed to the National Water Initiative in 2004, there has been considerable progress in enhancing the security of irrigation water entitlements, enabling water markets and trade, strengthening Australia's water resource information base and improving urban water security as well as environmental outcomes.

An example from my own electorate of the important work that has now been completed was the National Water Commission co-contribution to the establishment of the first national water register in Australia. The National Irrigation Corporation's Water Entitlement Register, NICWER, was established to comply with the National Water Initiative requirements for an online searchable water entitlement register for irrigator owned schemes. Harvey Water in my electorate of Forrest is a proud foundation member of NICWER.

The government remains committed to progress in national water reform and to supporting and promoting the implementation of the National Water Initiative. The National Water Commission has largely completed the important foundation work, and, whilst there is still work to be done in meeting all the obligations under the National Water Initiative, the primary focus will move to the ongoing reporting function established by the National Water Commission. For this reason, key National Water Commission functions will be retained and transferred to existing agencies. The Productivity Commission will take over primary responsibility for these ongoing functions.

The bill requires one Productivity Commission commissioner to have extensive relevant skills and experience in water resource management. It requires the Productivity Commission to establish a stakeholder working group appointed by the minister for each matter referred to the Productivity Commission for inquiry. A stakeholder working group will be established, with stakeholders appointed by the productivity minister, who will participate on a voluntary basis. The group will consist of representatives of agricultural, environmental, industry, Indigenous or urban water bodies, or any other body with an interest in the matters referred to the Productivity Commission under the bill. The stakeholder working group will meet at least twice prior to the report being submitted to the productivity minister in respect of an inquiry referred to the Productivity Commission.

This bill retains two key statutory functions previously undertaken by the National Water Commission. Firstly, it keeps triennial assessments of progress on implementation of the National Water Initiative and audits of the implementation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and associated Basin state water resource. This triennial assessment function will be transferred to the Productivity Commission. The triennial assessments report on progress towards achieving the outcomes and objectives of the National Water Initiative, and the assessments may include recommendations on actions that National Water Initiative parties might take to better implement the National Water Initiative. Secondly, under the Water Act 2007, the Productivity Commission will take over the role of the National Water Commission for five-yearly audits of the effectiveness of the implementation of the Basin Plan and water resource plans accredited under the Basin Plan. In addition, the amendments make minor technical changes to the bill to update the bill's commencement to the day after the bill receives royal assent, and a consequential change to amend the period to be covered by the National Water Commission's final annual report.

I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in the work of the National Water Commission to date— the commissioners, the staff, the ministers, and the public servants in the Commonwealth and the states and territories. Most importantly of all, I want to thank the board and staff of all the irrigator-owned schemes who, at considerable cost to their own organisations, responded to the countless requests for information from the National Water Commission and changed their operating procedures to meet constantly changing legislative requirements. As a result of everyone's combined efforts, Australia is now recognised as a world leader in innovation in the rural water industry—something that should not be underestimated or overlooked. We should not underestimate either the value of irrigated production in Australia. ABS figures show that in 2013-14 $13.4 billion was made in fruit, vegetables, dairy, cotton, grapes; in nursery production and sugar cane; in meat, cattle, cereals and rice—an amazing variety of fresh and bulk foods.

Irrigated land accounts for less than one per cent of all agricultural land in Australia, and irrigated production is a very valuable stimulus to regional economies. There are about 40,000 irrigators in Australia and, on average, irrigators produce 30 per cent of all agriculture value and half the profit in agriculture. It employs hundreds of thousands of people and, with the food-manufacturing sector, is Australia's largest manufacturing sector of all and a major exporter. We have sustainable irrigation practices in this country.

I look at Myalup along my coastal strip; I will talk about Harvey Water, because it is in my electorate. It is a customer service business, delivering water to cooperative members—it is a cooperative of local growers—to small private irrigators and industrial users. They have employed innovative solutions to provide access to water based on efficient and sustainable irrigation techniques. Water is supplied via an environmentally-sound gravity-fed pipe and channel system, using some 2000 individual supply points, sourcing water from seven dams along the Darling Scarp from Waroona in the north to Wellington Dam near Collie in the south. The system spans over 112,000 hectares, with more than 450 kilometres of pipelines and 250 kilometres of channels. The water supplied is non-potable and is not suitable for household drinking and consumption, but it is ideal for providing prime dairy and beef cattle grazing pastures, horticultural irrigation and water for industrial use. The regional economic benefits are enormous, estimated at $100 million in gross value added production from agriculture, horticulture and from the water supplied.

As a result of reviews of the operation of the scheme and Council of Australian Governments in1992 and reforms in water management, the irrigation system is now an irrigator-owned cooperative. It took over ownership of those assets and management in 1996. It is a dual cooperative business structure and that model was selected, with very good advice, to provide ongoing security for the assets. The business is owned by a management cooperative and the assets by a separate asset mutual cooperative. This structure has also enabled the ownership of entitlement to water to be separated from the land title, allowing water to be traded separately to the land. Irrigators own water in the form of shares in the cooperative, plus a corresponding certificate of water entitlement. In forming the cooperative, irrigators accepted that they should pay for the upkeep of the infrastructure because it provided a direct benefit to them. Harvey Water is very well-known; it resonates very well all around Australia, especially in my part of Western Australia.

I want to talk briefly about the piping project that Harvey Water undertook. It was a three-year, $72 million project to pipe the Harvey Irrigation district. This particular project delivered over 17 gigalitres of water savings, which has now been transferred to the Water Corporation on a permanent basis—an efficiency gain. The Harvey pipe project is highly regarded on the national scene and is recognised as being the best of its type. It has a broad vision and a practical ability to save and trade water and to provide funds for what is a world-class water delivery system. I have spoken about this particular delivery system in various places around the world. The Harvey pipe project was the inaugural winner of WA Water Awards and the WA Engineering Excellence Award in 2006.

The farmer cooperative proved a whole lot of people wrong. Many people said at the time that they would fail, but they have not. They have gone on to deliver in a very efficient way and they have a very sound business structure because they took very sound advice when setting up Harvey Water. They are still working towards replacing further channels with new piping. They will not stand still and they will continue to provide a range of solutions to the various issues and challenges they face. On that note, I conclude my remarks and support this particular bill.

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