Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Medicare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last year, the ABC's Four Corners program exposed credible allegations of serious water theft from the northern reaches of the Murray-Darling Basin. The alleged theft occurred under the watch of eastern state authorities. How they could ever occur is beyond my understanding. Any water stolen from the basin comes at the expense of every other irrigator. Regrettably, the Prime Minister refused to back a judicial inquiry into the thefts. Now, downstream irrigators, including those in South Australia, are effectively being asked to wear the water theft by accepting a 70-gigalitre cut in environmental water returns to the basin. South Australians should not be expected to wear cuts without allegations of water theft being thoroughly investigated, and that can only occur through a judicial inquiry. Disappointingly, the South Australian federal members for Sturt, Boothby, Barker and Grey, unlike Labor MPs, have failed to stand up for South Australia to protect South Australia's Murray River water flows. Once again, South Australian Liberals have shown that when their state needs them the most, they go to water.