Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. I, also, congratulate both you and Senator Ferguson on your election and add my strong support for both of those results. I thank Senator Minchin for his question and start by making the point that the situation in the Lower Lakes is extremely serious. The government is acutely aware of that. It is a situation which is driven by three factors. The first is a history of overallocation—a history of inaction by governments such as the one comprised of those opposite. There was a failure to address the overallocation of the Murray-Darling Basin while they were in government. There was not a single drop of water purchased by the Howard government for the purposes of restoring the health of the Murray-Darling. That is the first situation.

The second factor is the unprecedented drought we are experiencing. The third factor is climate change, where unfortunately we are seeing historic low inflows and historic low rainfall, although I am sure we are all grateful there has been some rainfall around the Lower Lakes region in recent weeks. But we have had a period of extremely low rainfall and even lower inflow—that is, water flowing into the River Murray—which is exacerbating this problem. And this really presages what will happen if this country fails to deal with climate change. Just a statistic that emphasises where we are at: the two years prior to the Rudd government’s election had the lowest inflows into the River Murray in the nation’s history and they were in excess of 40 per cent lower than the previous lows.

So, what are we doing for the Lower Lakes? Well, we are not simply offering $50 million; we have put down $200 million for the South Australian government to develop an enduring response to the long-term environmental problems facing the Coorong and the Lower Lakes; we have already announced, in addition to that, $120 million for an integrated network of pipes to deliver water to irrigators and communities and to service townships. So $120 million is already announced and will be able to be rolled out as this project is developed, and $320 million is what this government has already put on the table.

Could I just make one point. I say to Senator Minchin, as a senator for South Australia—and I have no doubt, because I know Senator Minchin, that, despite the fact I disagree with him on many things, he generally puts his view very clearly—that I think it is incumbent upon him as the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate to be very clear with people in South Australia about precisely what the opposition’s position on this is. What is your position when it comes to the Lower Lakes? Is it as Dr Stone, in her press release on 2 July 2008, said:

The Rudd Labor Government and the State Labor Premiers must also come to grips with the reality of the drought: open the barrages to the Lower Lakes, restore that environment ...

What this exposes is the way in which those opposite yet again tell one thing to people down the river, downstream, and another thing to communities upstream—playing politics with people’s fears and refusing to address the problem. Senator Minchin, if that is not the opposition’s position, you should get up today in this question time and indicate absolutely that that is not your position. (Time expired)