Fran Bailey (McEwen, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Acting Prime Minister, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Education and Social Inclusion. Acting Prime Minister, why has the government turned a blind eye to the rogue actions of the Victorian Labor government’s extraction of 75 billion litres of water a year from the Goulburn River to Melbourne when that water should be returned to the Living Murray Initiative? Does this extraction not make a mockery of the government’s national management plan for the Murray-Darling Basin?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for McEwen for her question. I acknowledge that the question she raised raises some matters which are significant to local communities in her electorate. I understand that and she is gesturing to say it is a bigger issue than that, but I do understand she is bringing this forward as a local member.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Pyne interjecting

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Adelaide, of course, is very close to my heart—my parents live there, my family lives there—so matters and circumstances often get raised with me going to Adelaide. I can assure the shadow minister for education about that and should he be interested in matters and circumstances related to Adelaide, I would recommend to him the editorial in today’s Adelaide Advertiser for his edification.

On the question that the member for McEwen has raised with me, the Rudd government of course has taken a series of actions to deal with the crisis in the Murray-Darling and with water problems beyond the Murray-Darling.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You gave a green light to the pipeline.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for McEwen—who is now having her shadow minister chime in, a shadow minister who was a member of a government that never bought a drop of water back—would be aware that this government has taken a series of actions to deal with the water crisis. Amongst them we have entered negotiations with states and territories. We have moved decisively on federal actions in relation to the Murray-Darling. We have commenced buybacks of water entitlements, something that never happened over 12 years of the government of which the member for McEwen was a part. There is a difficult set of problems and we have never said to the Australian people that these were going to be resolved overnight. We have had a longstanding drought and we face the circumstances of climate change. These are difficult issues which take concerted action. But in the 12 months of this government we have made more of a start than the government of which she was a member ever made.