Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today, sadly—even shamefully—this House passed the Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill 2023. During the debate, in the last parliamentary session, I made a contribution on this bill. After that time it came to my attention that the Senate, in their infinite wisdom, had decided to hold an inquiry into this bill even though it had not yet passed the House of Reps, and good on them! One can pass some kind of judgment on how much faith the government is putting into this House, because it's ramped through every bill and has the majority to do so.

It was decided in the Senate to have an inquiry, but then I was appalled to find out this inquiry, which would run for two separate days, would not go into the irrigation areas of the Murray-Darling system—those towns and communities that are set to bear the brunt of the resumption of the indiscriminate buyback of water licenses. There had been an agreement between the former minister, Minister Burke, and this parliament and the people of the Riverland, the people of the Sunraysia. We had an agreement. Where I come from, a man's handshake is an agreement. In this case it's been betrayed by the current government, and they're going back to indiscriminate buybacks.

As this Senate inquiry, unfortunately, was not game to go into the Riverland districts, there was a decision by the coalition agricultural backbench committee, which I chair, that we should take a committee there to hear their concerns. Over three days, we ventured into Shepparton; Mildura; Renmark, in South Australia; Griffith and Moree—the southern half of the basin. The stories we heard of the last buyback were really pretty rendering. I'll give you some quotes. Rosalie Auricht, CEO of the Renmark Irrigation Trust, said:

The exit package program from the Millenium Drought was devastating. We lost 10 percent of our land production … If water leaves our area, it never comes back.

Barry Holman, the mayor of the Bourke Shire Council, said:

When they bought Toorale (station and water) it was like taking BHP out of Wollongong. Ten percent of our productivity was gone. It used to employ 100, now it employs three. Schools closed. We lost two tractor dealers and the Ford and Toyota dealerships.

Then we heard from Roger Griffiths, the economic development manager at the Gannawarra Shire Council, in Mildura. He said:

When water trading started, we had about 350GL in our shire. It is now half of that. Schools are down 70 percent; dairy has been decimated … The last thing we want is more buybacks.

Shane Sali, the mayor of the Greater Shepparton City Council, said:

If the additional 450GL, plus the remaining 300GL—

which is the shortfall on the 2,750—

is to be sought as well, we expect the impact on our region will be a $900 million economic impact year on year. You rip people out of employment. You also take them out of volunteer work, community work, sporting clubs. The idea that you can compensate for that with a support package is impossible.

I said I warned of all these things in my second reading speech—that there was an agreement in place here. It is not yet fulfilled.

We agree with the government's movement to extend the time frame. Perhaps we need more investment for more infrastructure changes within the Murray-Darling Basin to recover water for the environment, but to keep ripping it out of communities, to put their economies at risk, to hollow out the industries that sit there—what happens when the juice factory is no longer getting enough juice to keep the doors open for the rest of the growers? We know about hollowing-out in industry.

I'm really concerned. I could see the pain on the faces of the people that came to talk to us. The fact that the Senate inquiry would not go there, that a government minister would not go there to face these people, is appalling. They were extremely grateful that we could be there. We have written a report; we have put a report into that Senate inquiry. Let's hope they read it. And I hope there are enough crossbenchers in the Senate that will hear the cries and the pleas of these communities, and step up to the mark and actually stop this legislation going through the Senate.