Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I make the point that governments have the responsibility to manage the chamber and its Senate inquiries. There is only so much time and so many resources. I think the government has been more than fair. That is one reason it rejects this particular reference.

Then the Greens get up here one after another and speak about no national plan for climate change. That has to be tackled head on. Conveniently, the previous speaker left out the government’s most recent national plan with regard to climate change, and that is our national water policy. This is a heaven-sent policy for the rural sector—for the government to take control of the Murray. The decades of confusion since Federation and the arguments between the states have reached a critical point—this we all agree on—due to the severe drought. Something had to be done and the federal government has taken the lead. Every state bar Victoria, my own state, has fallen into line, but negotiations are going on and I am pretty sure, if not convinced, that Victoria will also fall into line behind this national water policy, conveniently left out by the previous speaker.

There is a national policy in place, to the tune of $10 billion, which will benefit the irrigators along the Murray with infrastructure on the farm and off the farm, compensation and environmental flows. They ought to read it. I am not going to spend too much of my time on it in this debate—I have a full 20 minutes—as every other speaker has. It proves the point that it is simply a delaying tactic. Why would the previous speaker leave out the government’s national water policy and not acknowledge it as it is? It is not all stitched up yet; we understand that. This is a major handing over of powers by the states. I would say it is the biggest. I think it outranks industrial relations as far as the handing over of powers to a central government is concerned. But once it was announced every state quickly understood the national interest behind it. That is something the Greens do not understand at all. And they come in here and pretend they are the farmers’ friend. There would not be a farmer alive—I would like to meet a farmer in Victoria at least—who would approach me and say, ‘I am a Greens voter and I support the Greens.’ If he did I would certainly set him straight—it is not in his interests at all to support the Greens. This is the party that wants to shut down the coal industry and tell the farmers exactly what to plant, where to plant it and probably to turn half his property into an environmental sanctuary to allow the chickens to run free. That is another reason we do not support it.

What was also conveniently left out by the previous speaker was the fact that the government has not forgotten the regional and rural sector and issues of climate change. In fact we more than understand; it is at the forefront of our thinking, a priority. We receive 60 per cent of our export wealth from the rural sector. We have put in place not only the national water policy but also the National Agricultural and Climate Change Action Plan, in August 2006. Do some research over there! The government already has them in place. Do you think this government—