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

Let me give a history lesson. While this was the Labor Party's Murray-Darling Basin Plan, when I became the water minister I took an opportunity to reach out for some bipartisanship with the member for Watson. I'm on the record in Hansard for acknowledging the constructive way that we worked together, because we delivered the northern basin review and we delivered the sustainable diversion limits. When we talk about the fact that we have tried to tear this apart and tear away at the stakeholders of this, let me tell you that the other great achievement that the coalition was able to put in place when I was water minister was an agreement on the additional 450 neutrality and social economic tests.

Let me give those opposite more history, which is that the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is 2,750 gigalitres. We have recovered 80 per cent of that. All that the basin communities are asking for is the certainty to allow the infrastructure projects to deliver that water back to the environment through infrastructure and not through water buybacks. That is the plan which Labor put in place. That is the plan which I respected, as the water minister, and made sure that we worked with the states to ensure they were able to be given the time to deliver that water back to the environment through infrastructure, not through buybacks.

Let me tell you, buybacks rip away communities. It's not the farmers you have to worry about. They put the money in their pocket and they go away. It's the communities that are left there to support them—it's the machinery dealer, it's the local pump shop, it's the local cafe and it's the local hairdresser. They are the real human toll of what this plan would be, particularly if this government will not give certainty to the states around allowing them an extension of time to finish those efficiency programs. They haven't been able to do that because of this little thing called COVID. Those opposite might have forgotten about that, but the states are asking for an extension of time to be able to deliver that water back to the environment without ripping the heart out of its local communities. Let me say about Labor's talking points that we don't believe and we haven't achieved anything. I'm proud of my record as water minister. I delivered more than any other water minister in this country. I delivered the northern basin review, the SDLs and the neutrality test, which on that plan is an additional 450 gigalitres.

The plan is 2,750. The 450—which was Labor's plan and they put it in place—came with a caveat of social and economic neutrality. Now what they're saying is that they want to walk away from that for political expedience. Yes, this is complicated, and people in Adelaide probably don't understand the technicalities of this, but the human toll is real. The human toll sits in Shepparton. It sits all the way up into Moree and into my part of the world. Let me give you an example of the human toll on the communities. A 68-year-old man in Dirranbandi, a town that used to have a population of over 1,500 people but went down to about 600 people, was the butcher. That was his superannuation. As soon as this came—and it ripped the guts out of Dirranbandi—this man's business, which was his superannuation, was gone. I held him in my arms as he cried and talked about his future and whether he had a future at all. That is the human toll when people want to play politics and take away the certainty that I had with the member for Watson.

All of a sudden there's a new environment minister from Sydney who doesn't want to play by the same rules and the same intent that we have. The pain that we have taken across these communities and what we have done should be respected. Do not add this trauma. These communities do not deserve that. They have taken the pain. It is time now for some common sense to take hold, to continue on the pathway that we set to preserve these communities and to live up to what this mob, this government, when they implemented this plan, asked to be implemented. Live to those principles. That's all we're saying. The 450 should have a social and economic neutrality test. If they can't provide it, we should wipe it out. That's the simple way in which we should address this. This is bigger than what these politicians on that side are trying to run over basin communities. (Time expired)

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