Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Water, in her own right and also in her capacity as the Minister representing the Minister for Environment, Heritage and the Arts. I was interested in the minister’s litany of things that she is allegedly doing in the Murray-Darling. I want to ask her a question that will enable her to give a positive response now for something that can be done for the Murray-Darling. Minister, is it a fact that the Eildon Dam on the Goulburn River, which, as you know, is part of the Murray-Darling system, is only at 13 per cent capacity? Is it a fact that most of this water is reserved for environmental purposes? Given the critical state of the environment of the Murray-Darling Basin, will the minister today guarantee that the federal government will not approve the EPBC Act application that has been sought for the north-south pipeline, which will take water from the Murray-Darling system over the range to flush out Melbourne’s toilets?