Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I would just like to quote a little bit from Peter Cullen, from the Hansard. I would also like to point out that nearly all the amendments that the Greens are presenting are a result of submissions, evidence and consultation with community organisations. They are a result of actually listening to people—a result of evidence to the committee that everybody heard at the committee hearing, and everybody has had an opportunity to read the submissions. We had taken the time to consult with organisations, but that is on the basis of what they have been saying in their submissions and the evidence. Peter Cullen said this at the hearing so everybody could hear it:

As to the mission in the document, there are a lot of good requirements for water information, and I strongly support all of that. But there is no requirement for regular information on the health of the rivers, and yet we are doing all of this to restore river health. I believe the bill would be better if we could include in it a commitment to accelerate and to report regularly on the sustainable rivers audit that the Murray-Darling Basin Commission has been doing. We need to get a routine, regular, systematic measure of river health so we can see whether we are getting on with the task.

This is the scientist’s opinion. I agree that there are good information requirements, but they are not specific enough, in the expert’s opinion, to deliver on ecosystem health and on river health. This is a scientist saying this, not just us greenies going off half-cocked. This is the scientists saying that there is not enough provision here to report properly and to require the information collection for river health. That is why we think this amendment should be made, to make it crystal clear that information can be collected and why we are collecting it. We think it is a sensible addition. This bill is about the Murray-Darling system’s river health. Why not be explicit about it? If you think it is there already, make it explicit, because it is not explicit in the bill.