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

I cannot believe my good fortune—in fact, the good fortune of everybody on this side—in being invited to talk about the importance of integrity, accountability, responsibility and acting in the public interest in Australia's political system. Talk about an own goal! Here we go. I hope I will get to talk with sufficient time to detail the worst case I know of to do with lack of integrity, lack of accountability, irresponsibility and not acting in the public interest—the destruction of the irrigation system in northern Victoria under a federal government policy instigated under Labor's watch.

It began during the worst drought on record when Penny Wong, senator for South Australia and the then minister for the environment, hit on a great idea. We all knew that there had to be water found for the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder. The expectation was that it would be used for environmental works and measures. But someone whispered in her ear, 'Irrigators are desperate. The banks have their foot on irrigators' throats. They want them to relieve some of their drought debt. Why don't you put a tender out and suggest irrigators sell their water to the Commonwealth? The banks will make them do it.' She thought that was a brilliant idea. It was an untargeted, uncapped $50 million tender in the middle of the worst drought on record.

Tragically, half of my irrigators in the Goulburn-Murray irrigation district, an irrigation system as big as Tasmania and once the food bowl of Australia, were forced to sell by the banks and by their lenders. That water disappeared out of their irrigator market for all time.

Not sufficiently satisfied with that dismantling of our irrigation system, the Brumby-Bracks Labor government also saw an opportunity to pipe irrigators' water to Melbourne. Melbourne was not at any time considering recycling water. Their desal plant turned out to be a white elephant—too expensive to turn on.

There was a first stage of the project, where the state government provided $1 billion to help shut down the system, but then Tony Burke, the then minister for the environment, had another marvellous idea. He said: 'Look, those irrigators all sold their water, didn't they? Half of them sold their water when the minister for the environment offered that tender, so they mustn't want to be irrigators anymore. Let's go in and put another $1 billion of federal money into a second stage of the project. We will then take another 204 gigalitres out of that system, with the first 224 gigalitres going to Melbourne Water and the Victorian Environmental Water Holder.'

The 224 gigalitres plus the 204 gigalitres to go to the Commonwealth are the equivalent of the whole volume of Sydney Harbour. It also means the death, potentially, of dairying in northern Victoria—the jobs that go with that, the transport sector, all of the marketing and the exports. Labor did not care. They just rubbed their hands with glee and said, 'Bring it on. We'll get another 204 gigalitres for the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder. No, it can't use the water it's already got—it's only used half in its pool—but let's rip another 204 gigalitres off the irrigators. It sounds like a good idea.' In fact, the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder carried over more than 350 gigalitres last year because it could not use it for the environment. It just put 22 gigalitres on the market the other day because it could not use it for the environment. I wonder what the integrity was in that!

We just had a mid-term review of the great project, which is now called the Goulburn-Murray Water Connections Project mark 2, of the then minister for the environment, Tony Burke. The mid-term review says that this is an abomination. The project aims are unclear. Reporting is inadequate and confused. The amount of water savings the project can deliver remain unclear. Forecasting data points to a project falling further behind each month. The governance and communication between all parties mean the risk is not communicated, understood, managed, elevated and actioned between parties in a timely manner. Communications with landholders include confusing, inconsistent and delayed interactions.

This is an abomination. The plan ordered by Labor and paid for by the federal government never once looked at the agricultural productivity in the GMID, the sustainability of the infrastructure leased to Goulburn-Murray Water to manage afterwards, the value for money for the investment by taxpayers, or the long-term sustainability of the irrigation system itself. That is why I say that the opposition lacks integrity, accountability and responsibility. It has not acted in the public interest. It has destroyed the lives of my irrigators. It should hang its head in shame.

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