David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. The honourable member, being from Parkes, knows full well the importance of delivering the plan in full and on time. But what he also understands, and fears, is that if one part of the plan falls over it puts at risk the entire plan. The reckless actions of the Australian Labor Party and the Greens in supporting a disallowance motion against the Northern Basin Review does that. It puts at risk the livelihoods of the hardworking people in Parkes, who are now fatigued from the emotional and physical strain that these actions have put on those people. No Australian should have to go through that. But the Australian Labor Party and the Greens are doing that. This is the Labor Party's plan, this is their review. They had 14 months to come back to us and say whether they had problems about the Northern Basin Review, but not once, until yesterday, did they say they had problems. The reality is that they are playing politics above leadership, they are playing with people's lives. Let me tell you, this plan is at real risk of falling over if we vote against the Northern Basin Review.

Let me put this in perspective, because we need the states to come on this journey with us. Noel Blair, the New South Wales water minister, said on ABC Radio on 7 February this year:

We are really questioning whether we should bother with any of the other implementation of the plan if it's being treated like this. The hard work that's been done bringing communities along for the difficult conversations—to then have it just thrown onto the scrap heap like this, I don't know whether we'd want to be in a position to put our communities through that again.

Lisa Neville, the Australian Labor Party water minister in Victoria, put out a media release on 2 February 2018 in which she said:

The decision to disallow the Northern Basin amendment by the Greens and the federal Labor Party raises serious concerns about the future of the Murray-Darling plan. We will be assessing our position on the plan as a result of this decision and we will have further discussions with New South Wales. The Senate has created huge uncertainty about whether the plan can be delivered.

There you have it. There is the proof. We are playing with the future of the plan right here, right now. This takes leadership, and if it falls over, it will hang around the neck of the Australian Labor Party and the Greens for generations to come.

Mr Hill interjecting—

See this speech in context