Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I apologise to the minister and the chamber, especially my crossbench colleagues, for the lateness of these amendments. I appreciate the diligence with which the minister's staff have consulted with me on this important legislation. While I understand the lateness of these amendments means they won't pass, I hope the government will consider integrating these elements as the bill progresses.

My first and fourth amendments would require climate change and its impacts on the Murray-Darling to be taken into account in the administration of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. The fact is that the Darling is already suffering significant stress, and all of us should worry about the consequences for the Menindee Lakes and the Coorong, for example, should we suffer another drought, which seems highly likely. According to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, winter rainfall and stream flow in the southern basin have declined by nearly 40 per cent since the mid-1990s, and climate change is only making it more difficult. This is not a climate trigger, although I believe that should be a feature of much other legislation. This would, though, incorporate climate change into the objects of the act. Its absence is a significant oversight, and this would rectify a serious omission.

The third amendment goes to water resource plans, which are an integral part of implementing the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. All jurisdictions, other than New South Wales, have successfully completed their MDB Water Resource Plans and had them accredited. But, as the Wentworth Group points out, despite being more than four years late and having accumulated deficits over the past three years as a result of overextraction in the case of the Barwon-Darling and the Gwydir River systems, these cumulative deficits will be zeroed under provisions in the existing Basin Plan when the New South Wales Water Resource Plan is accredited by the Commonwealth. As all other jurisdictions have met their commitments under the plan to submit and have their Water Resource Plans accredited by the Commonwealth, New South Wales remains the only jurisdiction not to have done so. When they eventually do, they will not be penalised from exceeding the SDLs from 2019 to the accreditation date. The amendment is designed to remedy this oversight.

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