Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker Goodenough, on indulgence, I endorse the comments of the member for Lingiari and congratulate the former Chair of the Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs on the report. It was thoroughly enlightening. We could have gone on for a long time, but you were quite right to say that we've got to come to some conclusions.

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Water Resources, I present the committee's report on its inquiry into water use efficiency programs in agriculture, entitled Making every drop count, together with the minutes of proceedings.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Water Resources, I present the committee's report entitled Making every drop count: inquiry into water use efficiency programs in agriculture. The agriculture sector is an important part of Australia's economy; it is also the backbone of many of Australia's regional and rural communities. The Australian government's water policies and programs are of the utmost importance to the sector and to those communities. For those reasons, as well as the importance of sustaining Australia's wonderful natural environment, it is vital that water use policies and programs achieve their goals appropriately and efficiently.

One of the key components of the Australian government's water policy is its focus on water use efficiency: making sure that irrigators are able to get the best outcomes from the water they use and, in turn, ensuring that our water systems have appropriate levels of water for environmental purposes. This is a complex area but not one that Australia can afford to get wrong.

The committee's report makes eight recommendations based on the evidence we received. I would like to highlight a few of those as I table the report today. First:

The Committee recommends that the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources conduct an internal review of water use efficiency (WUE) programs to address the following issues:

The Department should provide the results of this review to this Committee no later than 1 June 2018.

The second recommendation, given the range and scope of water use efficiency programs, is that:

The Committee recommends that the Auditor-General consider conducting a performance audit of Australian Government funded water use efficiency programs to assess the design process, evaluation arrangements, and effective and efficient administration of these programs. The Committee recommends that the audit take place in 2018.

This external scrutiny would provide the public and the Australian government with reassurance regarding the overall efficiency of current water use programs.

The committee's third recommendation relates to the Productivity Commission's review of the National Water Initiative, which was provided to the government in December:

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government act expeditiously in response to the final report of the Productivity Commission's … and ensure that:

A key theme that the committee heard throughout this inquiry was the importance of further research, development and extension in relation to irrigation technologies to improve water use efficiency. Therefore:

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government establish and provide seed funding for a coordinating Research, Development and Extension (RD&E) body to work with the agriculture sector in order to:

Another related point we heard a lot about was the disincentive to upgrade to more efficient irrigation technologies, because of the high cost of electricity:

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government investigate mechanisms to address factors such as the rising cost of electricity and cost of alternative energies which may act as impediments to the adoption of water use efficiency technologies in irrigated agriculture.

As I said earlier, the viability of Australia's irrigation based agriculture sector has important consequences for regional communities. For that reason:

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government establish an integrated taskforce to assist Regional Development Authorities to:

Our final recommendation looks at the use of Australian government funding for infrastructure and related projects. The considerable expense of these programs requires the most rigorous analysis and process to ensure that money is being spent in the most efficient and effective way, as with all government spending:

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government require any water efficiency infrastructure funding or assistance provided to set out:

On behalf of the committee, I thank all of those who have contributed to this inquiry by providing submissions, appearing at hearings and hosting us on their properties. I particularly thank the committee secretariat, led by Dr Anna Dacre, Anthony Overs and Peter Pullen, both of whom have moved on, and I wish them well in their future endeavours; and also the committee deputy chair, Justine Keay, the member for Braddon, who is here with us today to say a few words; Rowan Ramsey; Tony Pasin; John McVeigh; and Matt Keogh.

Justine Keay (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I would like to thank the chair, the member for O'Connor, for leading this inquiry and also thank all the committee members for their participation and engagement, and for partaking in the work that we've done. It's a very complex policy area, and I'd like to thank them for their work. The committee made a decision over a year ago to make water use efficiency a priority for our work, particularly in light of the billions of dollars in the public spend directed towards water resource programs like those in the Murray-Darling. As deputy chair of the committee, I'm pleased to join the chair to table this report.

In many areas of Australia, water as a resource is a scarce commodity, limiting the agricultural productivity and diversity of a region. In areas where there is an abundance—for example, in my electorate—or even low to moderate levels, capturing and storing water and delivering it to where it needs to go can dramatically increase productivity and diversity to allow high-value production that benefits not just the farmers but also the regional economy and the national economy.

However, enormous pressure is placed on communities and the environment when this resource is not properly managed or planning of the resource in the system is flawed or non-existent. Conversely, when the system is managed and public funds are provided to do this, as is the case in a number of regions—Tasmania has been a large recipient of public funds to irrigate areas that were quite arid, as has, notably, the Murray-Darling Basin—it is imperative that the management provide effective value for money to ensure agricultural production is enhanced, the environment protected and communities sustained, particularly in an ever-changing climate.

One aim of the committee was to investigate the effectiveness of government-funded water use efficiency programs not just for the Murray-Darling but across the country and to provide recommendations to improve program delivery. The committee has made recommendations on measures and initiatives to further enhance work in this space. I trust the government will implement these recommendations in the interests of the agricultural sector in many areas outside the Murray-Darling Basin, and of course within the basin, and in the interests of the environment. Such new measures recommended by the committee include the provision of seed funding to establish a coordinating research, development and extension body to work with the agricultural sector in order to accelerate the adoption of existing cutting-edge irrigation technologies—we did see some of them while we were undertaking this inquiry—and promote innovation and the development of new water efficiency technologies.

Much evidence supported the need for coordinated and additional research to inform future programs and policies. Importantly, a review of water use efficiency programs is needed, and the committee has recommended this be conducted with a focus on the removal of impediments for smaller irrigators to apply for funding sources; expediting the process for funding allocation; undertaking baseline measuring of groundwater and surface water in a system before implementing water use efficiency programs, which in my view is the most important; and ongoing measuring to assess any impacts from such programs.

The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, in their evidence, recommended to the committee that further research into water use efficiency programs is vital. They said in their submission:

It is essential to establish the hydrological impacts of WUE—

water use efficiency—

on surface and groundwater systems, and to ensure that policy development is informed by sound hydrological research.

This is a fairly basic concept, and one that I was quite surprised we have not quite got right. Professor Lin Crase from the University of South Australia also raised concerns about the benefits of water use efficiency programs. He noted that, because policymakers are not informed by a detailed hydrological picture, investments in water use efficiency can have unintended consequences. He said:

The published literature in this area shows that investments in water use efficiency in most parts of the world usually lead to an expansion of irrigation, not a contraction. That's usually because we don't fully understand where the water goes when we start to invest in efficiency.

Evidence that we heard, and that I am particularly concerned about, dealt with the issue of intensification or changes to perennial crops. We should be monitoring to ensure short-term cropping gains are not sought at the expense of long-term water efficiency gains. That is why this recommendation is so important to the future success and value for money of any water use efficiency programs.

The committee heard significant evidence from farmers and irrigation bodies that the cost of energy to run irrigation is becoming a barrier to utilising water-efficient technologies, and farmers are sadly thinking about going back to diesel power and more traditional and less efficient irrigation methods. Therefore, and in light of an energy policy malaise, the committee has recommended that the Australian government investigate mechanisms to address factors such as the rising costs of electricity and costs of alternative energies, or all our efforts will be futile. Particularly in regional communities, we have seen and heard that they have been impacted by measures to gain efficiencies within the systems. Thus the committee also recommends that the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources and the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development establish an integrated task force to develop targeted initiatives to assist regional communities impacted by the local irrigation agriculture sector transitioning to water use efficiencies and to ensure ongoing monitoring of the social and economic health of those communities.

I join with the chair to firstly thank the many individuals, organisations and government departments that made submissions and gave evidence at hearings. I thank those that facilitated the committee's visits to many irrigation districts, organisations and farming operations, from beef and dairy in Southern WA to grapes in South Australia and to rice and cotton in Griffith. I would have loved to have the committee come to Tasmania to see what we do with our irrigation, but, unfortunately, that did not occur. I would also like to thank the secretariat for enabling this investigation and for the drafting of a very comprehensive report into such a complex policy area. Thank you.

Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House take note of the report.

Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.