Justine Keay (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to talk to the last point of this motion which is to congratulate the government for the delivery of irrigation projects across Australia and bringing to the front here in this chamber the Tasmanian experience. These projects make a difference to regional Australia. Low-value areas of agricultural land are being transformed through delivery of secure and reliable sources of water, but the self-congratulatory nature of this motion does not match the reality of what has happened in my electorate of Braddon and in my state of Tasmania. Every single irrigation project that has been delivered in Tasmania is a Labor project, either delivered by Labor or planned by Labor. These are the same projects that the Deputy Prime Minister likes to take credit for, along with the former Tasmanian Liberal members, the self-styled 'Three Amigos'. It was Labor under the leadership of former Tasmanian Premier, Jim Bacon. He launched the Tasmanian Water Development Plan in August 2001. This was the first time since the 1980s that a government had recognised the value of Tasmania's water resources.

It is not that well known but, beyond the west coast of Tasmania, a large part of the state is in a rain shadow. Hobart is the second driest capital city in Australia and land in the midlands and on the east coast was principally used for sheep farming. Labor had the vision to develop a water management plan, and the first signature project was the Meander Dam or, as it is now known, the Huntsman Lake in the Northern Midlands. The Meander Dam was completed in November 2007, and the momentum for development of irrigation projects continued under the leadership of Labor primary industry ministers Bryan Green and David Llewellyn and former Labor Premier David Bartlett who had a bold vision for Tasmania to become a food-bowl state for Australia.

In 2008 Tasmanian Irrigation Pty Ltd was established by the government and merged with the former Rivers and Water Supply Commission. Tasmanian Irrigation's work has continued on from the water development plan of 2001. The aim of Tasmanian Irrigation is to grow wealth in Tasmania by developing and enhancing the productive capacity of the state's agricultural sector.

Tasmanian Irrigation develops schemes as public-private partnerships, working with private landholders to establish how much water is wanted, and the cost of building a scheme is shared between the public and private sectors. Tasmanian Irrigation progresses the schemes from feasibility assessment through to construction and the operational stage. State and federal Labor contributed $220 million, for tranche 1 projects, over the years 2010 to 2015. There are now eight operational schemes in Tasmania.

Under construction are the Upper Ringarooma scheme and the South East Stage 3 scheme. In total, Labor's irrigation program represents a public-private commitment of over $310 million. These schemes are changing regional dynamics. In my electorate, at Labor's Dial Blythe scheme at South Riana, 44 farmers continue to grow crops, including pyrethrum poppies, and highly productive dairy operations, which they did not do before. The Dial Blythe area lacked surety for water and this scheme resolved that issue.

Tranche 2 schemes are located in Scottsdale, Swan Valley, Southern Central Highlands, Circular Head and North Esk. But when it comes to these schemes the federal Liberal government's record is nowhere near Labor's. The Deputy Prime Minister was recently in Tasmania praising himself for Labor's Southern Highlands scheme. What the Deputy Prime Minister forgot to tell the Tasmanian community was that this project had already been announced and funded by federal Labor, in 2013, through the report An innovation strategy for Tasmania: focus on food bowl concept of August 2012.

Funding for this scheme and all of the tranche 2 schemes was reannounced by former Prime Minister Abbott in February 2015 and not one agreement was signed until last year—three years to sign an agreement to start tranche 2 of Tasmania's next irrigation schemes! The Circular Head Irrigation Scheme, in my electorate, was signed in January this year by the Deputy Prime Minister. Extraordinary. But in government business enterprise scrutiny, in December 2014, the Liberal minister for agriculture, Jeremy Rockliff, was very hopeful that in the next 12 months the federal government would commit its funding for tranche 2, which is $60 million. That is about $50 million short of delivering these projects. (Time expired)

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