Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

There's something I feel incredibly passionate about: the economic viability of the regional towns that have sustained me through my life, whether that was Moree, where I lived, St George, Dirranbandi or even where I am at the moment. I grew up in Danglemah. It's in the Murray-Darling Basin. There are other towns such as Deniliquin, Griffith, Shepparton and Mildura—in the electorate of Mallee, that of the good member beside me. We can divide this speech and the speeches we hear today up between those who live and rely on the Murray-Darling Basin and those who live outside it and are commentators on it. It is amazing how quickly, back in 2013, whilst in the parliament, the people of the ACT managed to take Cotter Dam from 3.9 gigalitres to 78,000 megalitres—without a blink. The issue is, if you're taking water out for Canberra, that's A-OK, but, if you're taking water out for somewhere else, that's not. The previous speaker stated that we have to do this or we will permanently be in drought. I can tell the good member that, if we take this water out, some towns will be permanently in drought. In fact, they'll have no reason to exist. Sine qua non is the Latin for it—without this, nothing. One of the reasons I'm passionately attached to this is that I negotiated the initial deal with then minister Burke, the member for Watson. For the history of this—

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