Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Climate Change and Water (Senator Wong) to a question without notice asked by Senator Birmingham today relating to the Coorong and lower lakes in South Australia.

Senator Wong likes to come into this place and talk about how the record low inflows into the Murray have continued over the last couple of years. Senator Wong is right to talk about the record low inflows as they are occurring and she is right to highlight that. One of the key reasons why she is right to highlight that is that it demonstrates the need for urgency, continual change and adaptation to the situation in the Murray. Some 18 months or so ago the then government announced a package of reforms for the Murray. The then Prime Minister announced a plan for a clear national takeover. State Labor governments filibustered on that plan right through until after the election. They held it up doggedly and they stopped real action at that stage taking place. In the intervening time we saw a year go by of further record low inflows into the Murray—the situation getting even worse—and missed opportunities because of the actions and failure of state Labor governments to come on board with that national plan.

As we all know, late last year a new government was elected. Senator Wong, a South Australian senator, and the now Prime Minister frequently went to Adelaide and promised the world in what would be delivered for saving the River Murray and for reassuring South Australians that they could be confident that a new government would fix the problems of the River Murray. They promised extra money, which they later reneged on, they promised clear action and they promised that the states would work together and end the blame game. What has come about since then is a far cry from all of those promises and a government that has had to buy off one of their state Labor colleagues and has had to compromise on national takeover of the Murray in a manner that means we will not see effective national management of the Murray-Darling Basin until 2019, which is a long, long way away. All this was done to pacify the Victorian Labor government. Of most concern in the immediate environment in regard to Senator Wong’s response today is that we have a government who have failed to deal with the immediacy of the problems facing the Murray-Darling Basin, the irrigation communities throughout it and in particular the lower lakes.