Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Tuesday it was revealed that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had transferred oversight of the Murray-Darling Basin from the environment minister to the agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, sending a clear message that the National Party will be in control of the Basin waters and that eastern states irrigators will dictate how the plan is managed.

The Basin Plan secured by Labor after years of bickering between the states is now at risk of being undermined and South Australians, being at the end of the river system, have once again been sold out by the coalition government—this time by Prime Minister Turnbull. Yesterday Prime Minister Turnbull also refused to rule out reselling environmental water entitlements in the Murray-Darling back to irrigators, further adding to concerns about the future health of environmental wetlands and South Australia's Lower Lakes.

The livelihood of irrigators in communities throughout the Basin depends on a healthy river system and sustainable extraction levels. Oversight of the Basin Plan should not become a political bargaining chip. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who personally signed off on the deal to secure the support of his National Party coalition partners, has not only traded away his own environmental credentials but shown that his only priority is his own future.

What other shabby deals did Prime Minister Turnbull make or is prepared to make to pursue his own ambitions?