Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last night, the Senate passed a disallowance motion which drives a stake through the heart of the bipartisan Murray-Darling Basin Plan, a plan designed to give effect to a healthy, working catchment, looking after both the people and the rivers. This political exercise, engineered by Labor to shore up votes in South Australia's state election and the Victorian by-election, has crippled the confidence of my communities. They have watched as politicians in Canberra and Adelaide have trashed years of effort, compromise, adjustment and change for base political advantage.

Almost all of the Murray and Murrumbidgee valleys are in my electorate of Farrer. We have worked hard, given up much and prepared for a future with less water, and once again we confront uncertain times ahead. It gives me no joy to say this on behalf of the people I represent, but, as I foreshadowed last week, I have called Niall Blair, the New South Wales water minister, and urged him to withdraw New South Wales from the Basin Plan. Trust has gone; confidence has gone.

For over a decade, we did what we were asked to do. We gave up productive water for genuine environmental priorities. We watched a Labor buyback drain life from our farming towns. Line by line, farm by farm, family by family, we worked it through. In return, we have been punished by Labor, playing politics with all of our lives. Today we say: enough is enough.