Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today on an issue that I have been passionate about my entire life. I have raised it in this parliament from my first speech and will continue to do so for as long as I am here. That is the health of the great Murray River and the importance of water to South Australia. We know that one of the first things that the member for Wentworth has done as Prime Minister is to put Barnaby Joyce and the National Party in charge of water policy. This is a very real risk for South Australia and for the River Murray. We know that getting their hands on water policy was such a priority for the Nationals that it was included in their deal with the member for Wentworth when a range of other issues were excluded. They could have stood up for regional schools. They could have stood up for regional health. But they chose water as the issue that they wanted to progress.

So it leads us to ask the question: what motivated the Nationals to include water policy in their negotiating terms with the Prime Minister? I can bet that it was not because they care so much for the environment and for the environmental water entitlements that they wanted to ensure that they are well protected forevermore. In this very move, you can see just how much the Prime Minister was prepared to sell out for his own political gain. If there is anyone in this parliament who should know the importance of keeping water policy in Environment, it is the former minister for that exact portfolio, the member for Wentworth.

We know that in 2007, after a decade of drought, it was John Howard who took responsibility for water away from the agriculture minister and put it in the Environment portfolio, and there were very good reasons for doing that. It was a historic recognition that water policy needs to be based on science and that the first step in securing water supplies is to make sure that our river systems are healthy environments. The old approach of simply taking as much as possible from our rivers has failed, and it must never, ever be allowed to return. The mouth of our precious Murray was closed, invaluable environments were dying of thirst, and Adelaide's very water supply itself was seriously threatened. We do not want to return to those days because of the now Prime Minister's dirty deal in order to get power.

The Prime Minister understands the importance of this change in approach and why it was necessary. Why? Because he was the person who was appointed Minister for the Environment and Water Resources in 2007, when John Howard declared that water needed to be in the Environment portfolio. This makes his decision to abandon responsibility for water to the Nationals truly galling. We see how low he is willing to go for his own political career.

This is putting a vested interest in charge of water when what we really need is to listen to the science and to get the balance right. We have come so far in building a better future for the Murray. Under the last Labor government, more than a century of bitter division was put behind us with the finalisation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Now this progress is at risk because of a backroom deal by the Prime Minister to shore up support from the Nationals.

This will have the biggest impact on South Australia, despite the fact that there is not a single National Party representative from our state. As we saw when it came to Holden, as we saw when it came to the broken promise on submarines, it seems that once again the South Australian Liberals are prepared to sit silently by and let our state's vested interests be sold up the river.

Yesterday the Prime Minister had a clear opportunity in question time to reassure South Australians that he would not rip the heart out of the Murray, but he could not say the words. The Prime Minster yesterday refused to rule out selling environmental water entitlements in the Murray-Darling back to irrigators, and that says it all.

South Australians know the dire consequences of hurting the river Murray. I want to share the words from some South Australians themselves, like Cheryl, who said, 'This is a vital resource to Australia and should be nobody's political plaything,' or Jude, who said, 'Well done, SA Libs—you just handed the Murray-Darling Basin over to the Queensland and New South Wales Nats.' Both Sandy and Craig said that this is 'like putting the fox in charge of the chickens'. Paul put it another way, saying: "It's like putting the cookie monster in charge of the cookie jar.' John said: 'This is amazingly bad. When one thinks of the work that Tony Burke did to fix this, and Malcolm wants it messed up again. Very, very sad.' Carey said he has 'never seen somebody change their views so radically just to get a promotion'. We will keep fighting for a healthy Murray River and the South Australian Labor Party will actually speak up against this move.