David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I am fortunate enough to welcome the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor of Balonne Shire Council. Unfortunately, they are not here on pleasant business. They are here to talk to us about the disastrous effects of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan on their communities, particularly in St George and Dirranbandi. I have to acknowledge that, under the northern Basin review, the reduction from 142 gigalitres to 100 is a step forward in supporting those communities, particularly around the economic and social impacts it will have on those small communities. But it does not take into account the social and economic impacts that it has had on St George and Dirranbandi. I have lived and worked in St George, and I have seen the effects that water can have on those economies. My first job in St George was to do a home loan for a block of land in Dirranbandi for $500. I left St George two years later, and that block of land in Dirranbandi was worth $15,000. That is the value and the power of water. It is something we should be very cognisant of. The insanity of this is that, of the 35 gigalitres being moved back, South Australia will, at best, get three gigalitres. That is hardly a great environmental outcome for the people of South Australia, but it is all at the expense of the people of St George and Dirranbandi.

The very disappointing aspect of all of this is the inaction of the Queensland Labor Party. They are in government in Queensland, but they did not even bother to turn up at the ministerial councils. Minister Lynham did not have a seat at the table for Queensland; all he did was phone in. Queensland did not have a seat at the table to put their case; they had a phone line. It is absolutely abhorrent to think that a state minister who is charged with the responsibility of looking after water resource management in our state could not even be bothered to represent the people of his state or the economic future of communities like St George and Dirranbandi. Nor has he bothered to look at or to fight for looking at different measures to actually save water, to take away the need to remove allocation in some of these communities. The reality is there are plenty of options around compliance, but the state government has been negligent in every aspect. This is an opportunity for them to engage in the debate and become a part of the whole Murray-Darling Basin review.

This arrogance and ignorance does not stop with the Queensland Labor government; it also reaches right here to Canberra. In the last couple of days we have seen Tony Burke walk in and say he wants to tear up the intergovernmental agreement on water reform. But his ignorance and arrogance should not surprise us: he comes from a seat in Sydney 47-square kilometres wide and he has publicly stated in the past that he really has no interest in agriculture. I will prove that. In the great TV show TheKilling Season Uncut by Sarah Ferguson, the cameras for the Tony Burke interview were set up in the Marble Bar in the basement of the Sydney Hilton Hotel, which Burke remembered as an old haunt. He was more forthcoming than expected. His interview has an intimate quality—not confessional, but candid. Burke said he had been unhappy with Rudd for a while. He explained that after the 2007 election he was no longer able to call Rudd directly, which he had be able to do in opposition. He was also disappointed to be made the agriculture minister, a policy area he had no connection with. By 2010 his grievances had obviously deepened.

That is the epitome of what this decision is doing to our regional and rural communities. I have sat in these communities: I have seen fear in the eyes of hardened men; I have seen the tears coming out of their eyes because of the uncertainty about what the future holds for their families, all that they have created over generations. They can see that it will be taken away from them with the stroke of a pen, with the arrogance of a government and an opposition that do not want to listen. These are people who have fought hard, and we are asking for all to come together—but not for the cheap, tawdry political points that Tony Burke wants to undertake at their expense. That is abhorrent politics that no-one should be party to in this place. It is an indictment on the Labor Party that they want to use that at the expense of people in regional and rural Australia.

If you have a healthy regional and rural Australia, you have a healthy economy. We actually contribute more to the GDP per capita than most of the capital cities, and it is important that we remember that the investment in water infrastructure will continue to drive those economies and the entire nation forward. But if we have this ignorance and arrogance from people who do not understand and do not care, then we will be assigning the people of regional and rural Australia to the dustbin. That is not something I can stand by and see happen.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Vocational Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I remind members when referring to other members of this House to refer to them by their titles, not by their names.