David Fawcett (Wakefield, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Would the Prime Minister inform the House about water availability and contingency planning in the southern Murray-Darling Basin? What does this mean for a truly national approach to managing our water resources?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wakefield for his question. I am very sorry to inform the House that the fourth Murray-Darling Basin contingency planning report confirms the very parlous state of water in the southern Murray-Darling. Water availability is at seriously low levels and is deteriorating further. Irrigation allocations are still at either zero or extremely low, the inflows into storages are at record low levels, and there is significantly less water stored today than at an equivalent time last year.

The horticultural and other water dependent industries are, needless to say, the hardest hit of all; and there is now, tragically, a high risk of losses of permanent plantings. This contingency planning report, which has come from the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, recommends that governments in the basin states and, of course, the federal government consider additional measures. One of the measures recommended in the latest report is the possibility of a reserve for critical needs. I have sought the agreement of the relevant state premiers—the premiers of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia—and the Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory to a joint statement releasing the report. I am pleased to say that the Premier of New South Wales, Mr Iemma, the Premier of South Australia, Mr Rann, and the Chief Minister of the ACT, Mr Stanhope, have all agreed to the release of that report under a joint statement. To date, the Victorian Premier has indicated he is not willing to agree, despite the fact that I gave him assurances on the reserve, including that the officials of the relevant jurisdictions would be fully consulted about the implementation of any recommendations.

I would like to appeal to the Victorian Premier: I would like to ask him to adopt the same attitude as has been adopted by Mr Iemma, Mr Rann and Mr Stanhope. This is not a case of a Liberal Prime Minister attacking a Labor state Premier because, on this occasion, the Liberal Prime Minister and the Labor premiers of New South Wales and South Australia and the Labor Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory are all singing from the same hymn sheet. This is not an occasion for state parochialism; this is an occasion for total cooperation.

We are dealing here with a genuine crisis. There is a water shortage crisis in the Murray-Darling Basin. Crisis is not an exaggerated word to use in relation to this water situation, and those of my colleagues who represent horticultural districts of Australia, people like the minister for employment services, the member for Mallee—I could give you a great long list—the member for Riverina and the member for Farrer understand the parlous state of people whose livelihoods are derived from the Murray-Darling Basin.

If it is not the inappropriate word to use, I plead with the Victorian Premier to take the national approach that has been taken by Mr Iemma, Mr Rann and Mr Stanhope. I would like to ask him to reconsider. I would like to invite him to talk to me, to Mr Iemma, to Mr Rann and to Mr Stanhope. The situation is far worse than any of us would have hoped a few months ago. We all thought when there was some rain in June that the drought might break and the Murray-Darling might be saved. Tragically, that has not occurred and the last thing we should have at the moment is any kind of selfish state parochialism. We will solve this only as Australians and we have to share the pain as Australians and not behave like Victorians, South Australians, Queenslanders or New South Welshmen. It is too important for that, and I would ask the Victorian Premier to reconsider his position.

I am going to release the contingency report immediately so that the Australian people and, most particularly, those of our fellow Australians who are most sorely afflicted by this crisis can make judgements for themselves as to what is required in a cooperative spirit to tackle a very real crisis faced by the food bowl of the nation.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister and refers also to the water crisis in the Murray-Darling Basin. Does the Prime Minister agree that the Commonwealth has a responsibility to put the national interest first and help resolve the issue of the overallocation of water entitlements in the Murray-Darling Basin? Does the Prime Minister agree that water is overallocated in the Murray-Darling Basin? Why did the Prime Minister give written approval on 25 March 2007 for the auctioning of 8,000 megalitres of water entitlements for the Warrego River? Does the Prime Minister’s approval still stand?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will take that question in two parts. Firstly, do I believe there is overallocation? Yes, I do, and that is why we proposed a $10 billion plan. The whole purpose of that plan was twofold. It was to reduce loss of water by piping and lining the irrigation channels, and that was going to account for about $6 billion, and about $3.5 billion was going to be used to fund the buyback of overallocated water. If we had received the cooperation we should have received from the Victorian government, then we would be further advanced towards that goal today than what we are. In relation to the second question, the decision as to whether an auction will go ahead in relation to the Warrego is ultimately a decision of the Queensland government. I have indicated to the Queensland Premier that she should not go ahead with the auction in light of the recommendations contained in the CSIRO report, and I drew her attention to that report two weeks ago.