Mary Fisher (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the amendment. Previous speakers have talked about the hypocrisy of the construction of the north-south pipeline. It is not just hypocritical; it is plain wrong. The good people of Melbourne are unwittingly being used as the political fodder in this equation in the sense that the good people of Melbourne are like the good people of Adelaide—they are water wise and they want to do the right thing with water. Like Adelaide, Melbourne has choices in sourcing its water. Melbourne has choices in terms of better collection, storage, use and reuse of water, as has Adelaide. Capital cities must exercise those choices and leave the Murray-Darling Basin and its precious resources to those communities who have far less choice in accessing their water sources.

The north-south pipeline cuts through all of that. It was a politically expedient decision, as indicated by other speakers, to buy Victoria’s cooperation in the COAG process. Centres that are not part of the basin simply should not be able to draw upon the basin. We will talk later in this process about the necessity to gradually wean off reliance on the basin those urban centres that are outside the Murray-Darling Basin or not situated along the River Murray yet continue to rely on it for significant proportions of their water use. Once constructed, this pipeline will continue to be utilised to water the good citizens of Melbourne. It is wrong, and this amendment should be supported.