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

The government does not support this amendment. I want to make clear what is being proposed. Regardless of what we might think of these plans, these plans have been developed through different processes in each region, including in various regions in South Australia. Water users have made substantial investment decisions predicated around the time lines of those plans. For government to simply override these plans would, I think, be highly problematic. Particularly in the light of the exaltations in the Greens minority report—and Senator Siewert should be aware of this—about working with community, it would hardly be a way forward on what is a very substantial adjustment process. It would hardly be a way forward that worked with communities for us to simply override the plans that many irrigators have relied on in terms of their investments.

We do not shy away from the need to make an adjustment. That is why we are purchasing water. That is why we are rolling out investment in irrigation infrastructure, and it is why we are committed to the passage of this legislation and to the creation of a Basin Plan. But we have to recognise that it is an adjustment and we do have to put in place a range of policy measures to enable that adjustment to occur. We also have to recognise the need for some certainty in what are uncertain times, particularly in terms of the availability of water. We have to recognise where policy certainty is required in order to enable users to make that adjustment. So the government is consistent with the approach taken by the opposition when in government and is respecting existing state water resource plans. That does not mean we shy away from the urgent current task of reducing extraction from the rivers, which is the reason behind our purchase program and the reason behind our infrastructure program.