James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's been an interesting 18 months where we have been learning—I suppose collaterally to the other grave challenges we face through this once-in-a-century pandemic—a lot more about the Federation of this nation and how our levels of government are structured. When Australia federated in 1901, bringing together existing colonies, in many ways our Constitution was first and foremost designed to replace a lot of the things that the mother parliament in the United Kingdom was doing on behalf of the colonies at the time—those important national priorities of defence and of an economy, such as a reserve bank and currency, and standardisation. We all know the stories of inconsistent railway gauges et cetera as you reach the boundaries of the different colonial states of Australia. Largely, the national government was established with defined powers in our Constitution and, effectively, an added right or statement of anything else is not the responsibility of the federal government; it resides with the colonies—which would become states. We are learning a lot at the moment. Things have changed so much since 1901, particularly with the two world wars that saw the need for so much power to move to Canberra. And now, of course, a health pandemic is showing us just what the jurisdiction of the states has been.

But one thing that I perhaps regret was not enumerated as a power of the Commonwealth at Federation was jurisdiction over interstate waterways. In recent decades we have had to confront the challenge of managing the Murray-Darling Basin. The millennium drought led the Howard government to pass the Water Act in 2007—one of the last acts of the parliament under the Howard government. Then it was ultimately the Gillard government that adopted or introduced the plan that was envisaged within that act. Since then we have been working towards implementing the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Ideally, that will be achieved by 30 June 2024. I'm a great defender of and advocate for the plan, and it disappoints me when various interests from all sides of the ideological spectrum talk it down. It's something that is held in very high regard. Frankly, people come from around the world to see how we've dealt with the very difficult challenges of managing very complex interests that are all worthy in their own way but, of course, are competing for a share of a very finite resource.

I think Mark Twain said that whisky is for drinking and water is for fighting over. There are many parts of the world that are seeing these acute challenges. The river Nile has been dammed in Ethiopia, which of course is a very strategic flashpoint for that system. The Colorado River is in very dire straits in the western United States. There's not a system under pressure in the world that has anything like the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, authority and structure to deal with the competing interests and challenges and also, very importantly, ensure that the environmental health of the system is at the heart of managing it going forward, that we use all the water in the system to maintain the environmental integrity of it, and also support the important economic interests throughout that system and, indeed, fundamental human sustainment.

As a member from the city of Adelaide, I note that the Murray-Darling Basin and river provide the water source and water security for our city of Adelaide. It has been raining in the basin, which is fantastic. We are in the basin right here in Canberra, and every time I look out the window and see that it is raining it reminds me that, hopefully, many of those drops that are falling near this building will end up flowing all the way down to the river's mouth in South Australia. But we must have pride in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. We must have goodwill, and we must ensure that, if we believe in it, we say it out loud. As a member of this parliament I say that I am a huge believer in what we are achieving with the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. There are challenges. Some of those challenges may well have to be dealt with in this chamber and in the other legislatures around the country. But I support the plan, I stand up for the plan and I say we must work together to ensure that we are securing and guaranteeing the future of that river system for all that live in it and are sustained by it.