Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Can the minister advise the House what the Australian government is doing to restore the health of the Murray-Darling system so important to my electorate of Barker?

Peter McGauran (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Barker, who has an intense interest in restoring the Murray River to being a healthy working river—as do a number of other members who sit in the government ranks and represent other communities. The Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council had its 40th, and arguably most productive and convivial, meeting last Friday. I thank my colleagues the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Campbell, and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull, for their constructive input.

It always helps when the Commonwealth, in conjunction with providing national leadership, brings a big swag of surplus funding to support programs, as we did. We brought the budget’s $500 million injection of funding—we injected $500 million, just to repeat the point—for the Murray-Darling Basin Commission’s work. That takes the funding for the Murray-Darling Basin work for the Living Murray to $1 billion, of which the Commonwealth is contributing $700 million. Seventy cents in every dollar spent on the Living Murray will be from the Commonwealth on behalf of taxpayers and river communities. That means that a number of infrastructure works will be sped up and a number will be able to meet their original deadline. The government will also allow up to $200 million of its contribution to the purchasing of water from on-farm efficiency savings by way of a tender system that the parliamentary secretary is working up now.

When you take into account the Commonwealth’s investment—again, on behalf of taxpayers—by way of the Natural Heritage Trust and the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality, you are seeing billions of dollars being spent on the River Money—the River Murray.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Peter McGauran (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, there is a significant investment, but every cent is justifiable and every cent is required. That level of investment, that amount of money, is entirely justifiable, given that the basin is producing 40 per cent of Australia’s agricultural production.

In conclusion, what is the Labor Party’s alternative; what is their plan? We do not know. There is not a single word of explanation about how they would restore the Murray, how much it would cost or where the water would come from. In contrast, the government has put in a multibillion dollar investment which preserves and enhances the economic and environmental productivity of the great River Murray.

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.