Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source

On the 150 gigalitres expected to be delivered by those off-farm infrastructure measures, it would be appreciated if the minister could provide a breakdown of where it is anticipated they will come from. The minister, I know, had some comments to make about the report that was jointly produced by the Conservation Council of South Australia and the Australia Institute recently. That report said that only three of the identified projects had specified water recovery amounts attached to them, so I think Australians would be very pleased to understand where the 150-gigalitre figure is coming from for off-farm efficiency processes.

I'd also really appreciate the minister providing an update on the $40 million that was allocated for Aboriginal cultural water entitlements in the basin. That was part of the 2018 agreement that was reached in respect of a number of measures in the basin. I know the minister would be aware that there has been some growing criticism of the government in respect of the delay in the provision of those Aboriginal water entitlements. I think we'd benefit quite significantly from being able to hear from the minister on progress in respect of those Aboriginal water entitlements, because, of course, there are many important uses for water in the Murray-Darling Basin and cultural use is one of those really significant uses. With so many Aboriginal nations in the basin, I know that Australians would be very interested in this question.

I want to turn to the question of integrity and ethics in the basin. It has been a couple of years now since the Morrison government first announced that there would be an inspector-general of the Murray-Darling Basin. We had an interim one appointed. His appointment came and went. Then there was a lacuna. Then there was another interim one. He's still there. I am pleased to see that the government has brought forward the legislation to give a statutory underpinning for the role. I have a really simple question for the minister: given that that legislation can't commence on its own terms until all of the basin states have provided their approval for the amending provisions, can the minister update the parliament as to when he anticipates that legislation will commence?

Also, I'd like to ask the minister about a particular water buyback. The minister mentioned water buybacks yesterday in the parliament. Of course, Australia's most famous buybacks were two purchases of overland flow water licences from two properties, Kia Ora and Clyde, for an amount in the vicinity of $80 million. Those properties had been owned by a firm called Eastern Australia Agricultural Pty Ltd, the ultimate parent entity and ultimate controlling entity of which was Eastern Australia Irrigation Ltd, which was based in the Cayman Islands, a known tax haven. One of the founders of that company is someone who's now a minister in the Morrison government. Obviously, he has made clear that he no longer has an interest in that Cayman Island entity, but Australians, I think, are still interested in this particular buyback, particularly given the valuer, Colliers International, has informed the Australian National Audit Office that it does not consider the application of the premium referred to in their valuation report, to the range provided, to be reasonable.

The minister would also be aware of the Guardian article, '$13m mistake: valuer says $80m water buyback price was not in line with its advice'. I understand that the department has said that they are now undertaking to review the material available to them at the time which supported their decision to pay that $80 million price. They were going to review that material and the basis for relying on those particular components of the valuer's report. The question, really, is: can the minister give us an update of the work that the department said they were going to do in reviewing the government's decision-making in respect of that $80 million buyback? There were two buybacks, but we can talk about them collectively, as one set of buybacks. Could the minister tell us whether the department has proceeded and what the progress has been?

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Debate adjourned.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 13:00

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