Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. I ask the minister: will the minister update the House on the progress of reform in the Murray-Darling Basin? What steps is the government taking in response to feedback received from the House of Representatives inquiry into the impact of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan? What would be the impact of cutting funding for buybacks?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Makin for the question. Over the last few days in water reform we have had some constructive suggestions and we have had some negligent suggestions that have come from various quarters. I want to thank the members of both sides of the House who have been working with the member for New England in the inquiry that has been taking place into reform of the Murray-Darling Basin and share some suggestions and feedback that have been passed on to me from that inquiry.

The information that has come is very much matching what I have been receiving in the consultations that I have been conducting in irrigation communities. I should inform the House that the concept that has been referred to me from the committee about trying to improve the management of environmental assets is a very real possibility in trying to minimise the adjustment required for individual communities. I am currently looking at ways of formalising a process with stakeholders to come up with the best projects that might be able to deal with that. Similarly, issues have been put to me from the committee about wanting to maximise the opportunity for strategic purchases, and that is very much linked with the recommendation that has come from them regarding taxation issues. The Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government and the Treasurer have been working with me on trying to find a way of maximising the tax effectiveness of those strategic purchases, and we are certainly very hopeful that we will be able to make an announcement on that soon which I think will very much meet the wishes of the committee.

There have also been some suggestions that could not be described as being quite so constructive. It was suggested by the opposition that, as an alternative to Australians contributing through the flood levy, we would stop the buyback of water in the Murray-Darling Basin. It is true that buyback, even though it was technically funded by the previous government, was something that they never delivered on. They established the office of the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder and then gave the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder no water to hold at all. I notice some members around have glasses of water at their desks. There is more water in those glasses than was ever purchased by the previous government for environmental water to restore the Murray-Darling to health. That puts at a disadvantage all the irrigators who have actually invested in improving their infrastructure and who then want to put the water that they no longer require on the market. But, when they want to do it, this mob opposite are saying that, if they were in government, they would not assist with that. They are saying that that would not be available in the repurchase of environmental water.

This is a great victory for Senator Joyce over every South Australian member opposite, because the South Australian members on this side, including the member for Makin, know exactly what the last drought looked like. They know exactly what it looks like when you get acid sulfate soils. They know what it looks like when the Lower Lakes become a bed of salinity. They know what it looks like when you allow the rivers to run dry because of overallocation. But every South Australian member opposite has been defeated in a campaign by Senator Joyce to try to stop the reform of the Murray-Darling Basin.

Do not forget what that means for irrigators, because if you do not engage year after year in a strategic, voluntary buyback from people who have chosen to put their water on the market then you have only eight years before the final state water plans come into place, and that means the opposition have created a situation where, by being negligent in buyback in the coming years, they would land Australians in a situation of potential compulsory acquisition in eight years time. If you do not engage in the buyback in a strategic way, the concept of willing sellers completely falls off the table. Mr Abbott, the Leader of the Opposition, has once again put his political interests ahead of the national interest. He does not believe in water reform. (Time expired)