Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move Greens amendments (22), (23) and (24) on sheet 5361:

(22)  Clause 172, page 164 (after line 10), before paragraph (1)(a), insert:

           (aa)    to pursue the objects of this Act as set out in section 3;

(23)  Clause 172, page 164 (line 17), after “quantity”, insert “and the threat to the long term health”.

(24)  Clause 172, page 165 (line 32), at the end of paragraph (1)(h), add “with specific attention to river, wetland and estuary health”.

These come under part 9—‘Murray-Darling Basin Authority (administrative provisions)’—clause 171, and clause 172, which goes to the authority’s functions. It has a list of the authority’s functions but, indeed, it is very light on the reference to the requirement under the objects of the act and the matters that we have been discussing today to ensure the environmental health of the Murray-Darling Basin. These amendments point more specifically to that. Firstly, it would say, ‘The authority has the following functions,’ and, rather than just going to the functions confirmed for the authority under parts 2, 5 and 10, it would begin with new clause (aa), which says: ‘to pursue the objects of this act as set out in section 3’—and those objects specify, amongst other things, the environmental requirements.

It also amends clause 172(1)(b), so that it would read: ‘To measure, monitor and record the quality and quantity and the threat to the long-term health of the basin water resources’. The insertion of ‘threat to the long-term health’ in the clause will ensure that the authority is looking at not just where the basin is now but where it will be down the line, taking into consideration the overview that it must have of the future. Under subclause (1)(h)—‘to collect, analyse and interpret information about the basin water resources and water dependent ecosystems’—we add ‘with specific attention to river, with land and estuary health’ to make sure that those matters are given the priority they deserve.

I might just add that I went to the Macquarie Marshes a year or so ago and saw the appalling state of this internationally renowned wetland and bird breeding place—tens of thousands of birds used to breed there. It is in an appalling state because it has been deprived of water. At that time, egrets, which had reproduced in their thousands each year, had not reproduced at all for the preceding six years. That was the impact of not just climate change and drought but the diverting by irrigators of the water away from that system without adequate government assurance that the ecosystems got the water which is their lifeblood. These amendments simply point more directly to the need for the ecological considerations to be given the priority that they deserve.