Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Goldstein for her work and the work of her office with my office and officials on proposing these amendments to the Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill. The member for Goldstein has mentioned that we've only just received them this morning, and I understand the reason for that: her office has been much occupied with the very difficult situation in Israel at the moment, with many constituents requiring her attention. So I completely understand why the amendments have only just now been presented to the parliament.

While there are a number of elements here that we broadly agree with, we won't be supporting the amendments today. The government will continue to work with the member for Goldstein on the very strong issue she has on better environmental outcomes that the restoring our rivers bill is intended to produce. I want to thank her for her continued engagement. We really have seen a decade of delay on the delivery of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, and one of the things that we've observed through that decade is the impact of climate change right across Australia but most particularly in the Murray-Darling Basin. We know that climate change is already impacting the basin, with record droughts punctuated by the most intense floods. Environmentally, it has been a very, very difficult time for the people living in those basin communities. Sadly, we know that climate change means that those impacts will not only continue but are likely to worsen. We don't, for a moment, discount the seriousness of the issues that the member for Goldstein is alluding to.

One of the most important things that we can do now is actually deliver on the Basin Plan to make sure that we prepare. We know we're going into another hot, dry cycle; we know that. The Bureau of Meteorology has told us that we're going into another hot, dry cycle. For the benefit of everybody whose livelihood depends on the basin, for those communities—three million people rely on this river system for their drinking water—and, of course, for the environment, we need to prepare now for those hotter, dryer times that are coming.

I want to reassure the member for Goldstein that we are taking this very seriously. We're investing $22 million to update Murray-Darling Basin science for the very reason that she's mentioned today. We're assessing the impact of climate change on the 16 Ramsar listed wetlands in the basin to support their future protection and management. We're reinstating the Sustainable Rivers Audit to track and report on the health of basin rivers. We're updating the CSIRO sustainable yields study to show how much water will be available in the future with climate change. We are doing that scientific work now. We are making those investments.

In addition, the government is investing $103.7 million in the Murray-Darling Basin Authority to review the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. This forward-looking review is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to futureproof the basin based on updated science and information. We're doing the science now, and one of the reasons we don't agree with the proposal to change the date of the review of the Water Act is because we want to get this science done and the review of the plan done. The review of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan will consider the challenge posed by climate change and set the basin up for the future, ensuring that the river system is healthy, and the basin is sustainable.

Of course, we're also going to look more broadly. The impact of climate change is not confined to the Murray-Darling Basin, so our renewed National Water Initiative will look at our water needs nationally, because we know that they will also be affected in other states and territories by the impact of climate change.

I very much understand the intent of what the member for Goldstein has moved, and we will look at some of these elements in the Senate, but for today we will not be able to support the proposals as suggested.

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