Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to talk about the Murray-Darling Basin and the allegations of water theft aired on the ABC's Four Corners program on 24 July. I believe they are shocking both in their flagrancy and their sheer scale. They are allegations that have angered my Mayo community and many, many South Australians. Water rights in the Murray-Darling Basin can be owned and traded, but the river itself belongs to all Australians. The allegations of complicit corruption amongst some New South Wales government officials are, if anything, even more concerning. The Sydney Daily Telegraph alleges that there have been some secret deals between the New South Wales Nationals and large irrigators, one of whom is the subject of the Four Corners investigation. We are not talking about small amounts of water here, and some of the properties in question have multiple mega dams which are measured in multiples of the Sydney Harbour rather than in mere multiples of swimming pools. The federal government has spent billions of dollars of taxpayers' money on water buybacks, and now we have no idea what they have to show for it. The communities in my own electorate right at the end of the Murray, the most vulnerable part of the Murray, now feel very angry and betrayed, and rightfully so. Let me tell you something about the southern end of the basin, where we have still have not recovered fully from the effects of the last drought.

Farmers on the river, and particularly in the Lower Lakes, have told me how much their agricultural techniques have changed in the last few decades to adapt to less water, and how, despite all of the new efficiencies, it won't be enough if the river does not fully recover before the next drought hits. Only a few months ago a group of business leaders sought a meeting with me because they feared northern irrigators would start clawing back water. Little did we know that the clawbacks may have already occurred, and under the table. Indeed, family farms in country towns the entire length of the River Murray and its tributaries have the right to ask what is happening to our water, and to get a clear and honest response. Instead, we have seen what can only be described as a farcical response from the Leader of the Nationals, whose party has such a bedfellow relationship with its mega irrigators that it defines the very meaning of conflict of interest. I believe, in light of the allegations, it is only proper that Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce step aside from the water ministry, and that the portfolio should not be held by a National Party member until all of the allegations can be resolved. To do anything less will destroy what little faith downstream communities have left in the regulatory framework that is supposed to uphold our national Basin Plan. Fishers at the end of the river system have accused the Deputy Prime Minister of placing his foot on the Coorong's neck. They are petitioning the Prime Minister to remove the Deputy Prime Minister from the water ministry and they are demanding a full independent inquiry into the Four Corners allegations and no cuts to environmental flows, and I agree with them. There are incidents—

Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Maybe we should kill the seals!

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Why don't you stand up and talk about the River Murray, Member for Barker. You've been deafening in your absolute silence on this. There are indications that the claims aired on Four Corners are but the tip of the iceberg. I believe that we can expect similar allegations to come to light across the basin.

The Nick Xenophon Team welcomes the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry, and my colleague Senator Xenophon has written to the inquiry requesting that they urgently investigate the allegations that inside information was given to lobbyists by the New South Wales government department, and why water enforcement investigations appear only to have been curtailed. The New South Wales ICAC is a welcome step, but it is a small step in comparison to the sheer scale of the allegations.

It all leads to one conclusion: the only way to resolve such shocking allegations of grand scale theft and major corruption is to launch a full judicial inquiry with the powers of a royal commission. Anything short of a full judicial inquiry is just an attempt to sweep these allegations under the rug, or perhaps to hope that they wash away. I put to the federal government, and, in particular, to the National Party: if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear from a judicial review. Yet all I hear, and all South Australia hears, and all the communities up and down the river hear is silence—deafening silence—particularly, disappointingly, from the South Australian federal members of the Liberal Party. They should stand up for their state and they should also call for a judicial review. We need to put our state above any party politics. I might say that the state Liberal Party is supporting this, and I commend them for that.

Before I conclude, I would like to say a few words on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. As a result of the Four Corners investigation, some have sought to criticise the plan and the planners rather than the alleged plotters. Let me be clear: the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is not perfect. No plan ever is perfect. But it is a good plan, and it is our plan. It is a shared plan born of compromise—the hallmark of a well-functioning democracy. It is our national plan, and we must stick to our national plan. The alternative is that our great River Murray-Darling system, which is already on a trajectory for a full-scale collapse, still has a possibility of running dry, and there will be no water for anyone. We cannot allow this to happen to our great nation.

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further grievances, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:18