Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Regional Australia I wish to make a statement concerning the committee’s inquiry into the impact of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in Regional Australia. On 28 October the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government, the Hon. Simon Crean, determined that an inquiry of the newly formed regional Australia committee would look into various aspects of the proposed plan in relation to the Murray-Darling catchment. As most members, if not all, would be aware, this is a very important food producing asset that we have in the eastern part of Australia. It intersects four states and has been part of various discussions for decades now in terms of some of the issues that revolve around the passage of the Murray and the Darling systems through four states and then out into the ocean at the Murray mouth. There have been a number of discussions over many years trying to wrestle with the various issues—usage issues, allocation issues and river health and environmental issues.

I thank the members who are going to have their time taken up in being on the committee, some of whom are in the chamber at the moment—and the deputy chair, the member for Braddon, will be speaking shortly. I thank those committee members for their involvement. I think they are adopting the correct mindset in relation to this issue. We have a unique opportunity, given the nature of this hung parliament, to actually design a solution. The multiparty committee—comprising Labor, Liberal, National and Independent members—will be able to look at all areas including socioeconomic issues, the impacts on communities and the various problems within specific valleys. Given the urgency of this particular issue, many members will give up time in January to travel throughout the system not only to conduct hearings but also to look at some of the very important aspects of the Murray-Darling system.

We believe that there are solutions out there that need to be looked at and, given the concerns that have been expressed by the community about the Murray-Darling Basin Authority guide, we are confident that, given the nature of the committee, many of the concerns can be placated. The committee looks forward to resolving what is a longstanding issue, one that both sides of parliament have wrestled with over many years. We now have a unique opportunity. The executive arm of government does not have total control in this particular parliament, and the members of this committee, most of whose electorates lie within the catchment itself, have a real opportunity to come together and design a plan that can be proposed at the end of the committee hearings. Hopefully that plan can be taken on board by the executive, by the minister for regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government, and by the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.

The secretariat has called for submissions in relation to this, and I would encourage people to be involved. I know a lot of the people who have been to meetings feel as though there is a foregone conclusion in relation to the various numbers that are outlined in the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s guide. However, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority in a sense has no real authority. It is the parliament that has the authority. As I have said, the committee will be made up of members from across the spectrum in the parliament, and both the minister for regional Australia and the minister for the environment, as well as the Prime Minister, have said to me that they are keen to see this issue resolved. I think that it is this parliament that may be able to do it.

Committee members will travel throughout the basin area during January, hearings will be held between February and April and a report should come down in either April or May, although that deadline is extendable if necessary. Many people from across the basin have contacted me—and, I believe, other members of the committee—putting forward various suggestions to enhance the environmental health of the Murray-Darling system as well as for mitigating the socioeconomic effects of the guide’s proposed cutbacks on certain communities. A lot of the work of the committee will be to look at those impacts on communities.

The recommendations currently in place are only a guide. They are not even a draft. They are definitely not a plan and they are not legislation but, if those current recommendations were to be put in place, we need to ask what impacts they would have on those communities. Where those impacts have been shown, we really need to drill down to find out whether there are other solutions to the problem—for example, through water use efficiency or evaporative savings. There are a whole range of other issues out there, many of which are within specific valleys. A specific issue that needs to be addressed is the finding of solutions to problems of river health within specific valleys given the water reductions that have been advised.

Given that we are short on time I will leave my statement there and ask the deputy chair to say a few words. To all those out there who may be listening to this statement, including the press, I would urge them to consider that this is probably one of the biggest issues this parliament will deal with—and it has wrestled with the problem for many decades. But I would ask people to actually look at the positive sides of this: that we should look forward to resolving the issue of socioeconomic impacts on those people—irrigators as well as other people impacted by the current health of the river system—who have invested heavily in their communities. I believe there is a solution there and I think we should take this opportunity, given the nature of this particular parliament, to work constructively to deliver a solution to the parliament and the various ministers so that this issue can be put to bed once and for all.

Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for New England for his comments, endorse his statements and congratulate him on being appointed Chair of the Standing Committee on Regional Australia. I congratulate all the other members of the committee on their appointments. I want to reinforce what the member for New England had to say about the committee and the terms of inquiry. There is a belief that the proposed guide from the Murray-Darling Authority is set in stone. The member for New England is absolutely correct: this parliament will make its recommendations on that guide and its impact, environmentally, socially and economically.

The concern that the member raised is probably best expressed in a Crikey submission from Andrew Campbell, who wrote on 16 November:

The lack of buy-in to the draft Basin Plan among affected communities is palpable. The feeling that decisions that will affect lives and businesses are being made remotely, without a fine-grained understanding of local impacts or local solutions, is widespread across the Basin. Even among people who accept that the Basin is not a magic pudding, and that decades of over-allocation need to be corrected in the interests of long-term water security and river health, there is a strong perception that the plan is a done deal, that consultation processes are cosmetic, and that legitimate social and equity concerns are not being taken seriously.

That is the end of the quote.

As the member for New England said, and as was reiterated in a joint ministerial press release on 14 October by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government and the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities—Senator Ludwig, Minister Crean and Minister Burke—the intention is that this inquiry will look at and take notice of those people who have something to say about the economic and social effects of this guide. And a guide it is, and that was reiterated by Minister Burke.

I hope that the people of the Murray-Darling and all those interested in these very important questions will take heart from who is on this committee. There is a vast amount of experience and a great deal of interest in the Murray-Darling region among its members. The member chairing the committee, the member for New England, Tony Windsor, has been in this place since 2001 and in the New South Wales assembly for 10 years before that and is well known throughout Australia for his interest in matters to do with agriculture and the environment and other rural and regional issues.

The member at the table at the moment, the member for Farrer, Susan Ley, is from the area of Albury in New South Wales and is a passionate advocate of her region. She works to get the balance right and advocates by representing people and listening to their views. My colleague the member for Capricornia from Queensland, Kirsten Livermore, has been in this parliament since 1998. She is another passionate advocate of rural and regional Australia with a great deal of interest in this area.

Michael McCormack, the member for Riverina, is from the National Party. Michael has a long history of being interested in issues that affect his community, working through his media and publications to help. That is why he is in this House: to represent those people. Then there is Rob Mitchell, the member for McEwen from Victoria; Dan Tehan, the member for Wannon in Victoria; Craig Thomson, the current Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics; Dr Sharman Stone, the member for Murray; Patrick Secker, the member for Barker in South Australia; and I. We all have long histories of interest in matters rural and regional. We want to hear. We want to consult. We want to listen. And we will take notice.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allotted for this discussion has now expired.