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

While there are a considerable number of amendments here, we were only made aware of them late last night, and obviously there are a number of them that should bear some more scrutiny. One in particular goes to the heart—it tears away at the very tenet of our judicial system, around the presumption of innocence. I think that sets a very dangerous precedent where the onus of proof and the evidential burden are now on an individual, which goes against the very key tenet that has underpinned our judicial system. I don't know why an irrigator would be treated any differently to anyone else in our community.

Though the minister talks about how these amendments have come from feedback—yet they were only prepared to give them to us late last night—the feedback has been very, very narrow in its scope. The government hasn't bothered to go and visit basin communities and sit down and have public meetings or town hall meetings with them. If the courage of your convictions on this is so strong, wouldn't you go and articulate the science when you articulate the reason why you are doing this to the very people whose lives and livelihoods you are changing in such a significant way? Instead, they voted against a Senate inquiry that would actually go and visit real communities instead of just putting them in Canberra and Adelaide. There was no opportunity to go to Griffith, no opportunity to go to St George or Dirranbandi and no opportunity to go down to Mildura or Shepparton to actually listen to the impacts of what this is doing.

You are tearing up the very legislation, which you created and we supported in a bipartisan way in 2012, to understand that these communities have accepted that Basin Plan. We are about to complete the Basin Plan, but now you want to shift the goalposts and add another 450 gigalitres of water without any safeguards. These are the safeguards that the member for Watson, who was the water minister, brought in. He did the right thing because he understood the pain that we put on these communities. We have borne and we have accepted those safeguards, but now you're seeking to change those rules and add another 450 gigalitres without even talking to these communities. That is nasty ideology that turns its back on the men and women in the basin communities. These men and women have had the courage of their conviction, their sweat and their money to go and invest and to change their lives to create a future for their children. It's being ripped away by a government that doesn't have the courage of its own conviction to face them. The government doesn't have the courage of conviction to stand there and prosecute why it is tearing up the very piece of legislation that it asked us to support, which we did in a bipartisan way in 2012.

There's been a lot of water recovered for the environment. The last bit should be recovered through infrastructure, not through buybacks. That is common sense. We are a smart nation, we're a proud nation. Why wouldn't we back ourselves and protect Australians who have had the courage to start a business, to produce your food and fibre? Why wouldn't you back them? Why wouldn't a government back them if we want to get back to first principles, returning water to the environment? There is an opportunity to return water the environment through infrastructure, rather than the blunt instrument of buybacks, which have enormous social and economic impacts on our communities. Will we become the forgotten Australians? If you don't live in a capital city, you are forgotten by this government. It all comes down to ideology, not practical reality and common sense.

The Nationals and the Liberals have understood that change needed to happen. We backed ourselves and worked in a bipartisan way. I pay homage to the member for Watson who, when I was water minister, worked in a collaborative way to achieve commonsense solutions. We achieved so much in the legislation that we put through to make sure that we didn't have to go down this path of buybacks. He understood the impacts buybacks would have. This government has changed its stripes. It's lost its principles and its values of standing up for every Australian, no matter where they live, no matter their postcode. It's not the Australian way. Every Australian will pay the bill for this. If you take away the tools the farmers need to produce your food and fibre, you will pay more. This will land squarely at the feet of this government whose ideology is destroying regional and rural Australia.

See this speech in context