Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

And it is urgent. We are to pass this legislation through this place because it is so urgent that we need to act immediately. We cannot afford to waste time debating amendments to try to improve this bill and the act because it is urgent that we act. It is so urgent that we act that we can wait till 2019 until we bring the water-sharing plans into line with the Basin Plan. Make no mistake: the Basin Plan will not come into effect until 2019, when these final catchment plans come into line with the Basin Plan. While the minister has tried to turn the Greens very strong comments and feeling for community involvement in the decision making and the restructuring of the basin, that does not mean that we have to endorse plans that are potentially—I will say that: potentially—unsustainable and are not consistent with a sustainable cap. How can we stand and say to the Australian community that we have to rush this piece of legislation through this place if we cannot ensure that the Basin Plan comes into effect as soon as possible? The government can engage the community in discussions about the future of the basin and still have a meaningful deadline for the implementation of the Basin Plan.

So both major parties think it is acceptable that the Basin Plan does not come into effect till 2019. Yes, the Greens do accept that it is urgent; we do accept the urgency for putting in place the authority and setting the planning process in place. But do not pull the wool over the Australian community’s eyes and say that that means we are going to get a Basin Plan that delivers any proper meaningful outcome in terms of ensuring that all water use in the basin is sustainable. Do not pull the wool over our eyes by saying it is urgent and we have to act with haste if in fact we are rushing so urgently that we may get there by 2019. In New South Wales it is 2014. It is not acceptable to the Australian community.

Yes, I do appreciate that we are spending $12.9 billion, but it is not being spent quickly enough. We are not acting with a sense of urgency. I remind this place that the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists has pointed out that we need to reduce consumptive water use by 42 to 53 per cent, and that seems to me pretty consistent with the dire warnings and the dire outcomes and predictions we got from the CSIRO sustainable yield project just yesterday. The minister very eloquently told this place about those dire consequences yesterday and today. Let us not pretend that we are rushing with all haste to try and implement a plan when we have got 11 years to rush this through. It is absolute nonsense. It makes a mockery of the comments that we have to do this urgently. The river is not going to be around in 2019.