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

I thank Senator Siewert for the courtesy of letting me make a couple of comments. I wanted to respond on this before 11, and I appreciate your showing me that courtesy. First, I am going to take you to something you said about the government saying we cannot afford to debate amendments. I have been in here debating amendments. We have never said that. The point I have made to the chamber is that we do want this legislation passed before the end of the year because we want the authority to be able to do the work under the act, as amended, that is required, including the sorts of issues that you have raised previously, and to get on with the very substantial task of preparing the Basin Plan. We are clear that we want this legislation through, but we have never shied away from the ability to debate amendments. As you know, the government has considered the views of crossbench senators in your various reports, as I hope you would have seen from the way in which the debate has been undertaken. So I think that it is not quite accurate.

First, in terms of urgent action, I recognise that this is not a Commonwealth takeover; this is a cooperative approach that has been negotiated with the states. We saw how effective a Commonwealth takeover was last year when it was announced in January and by the election nothing had happened. So talk about urgent action; we have to have urgent action and we believe the best way is to take the approach we have taken, which is to get an agreement to purchase water as the quickest way to put water back into the river and to roll out infrastructure and irrigation investments.

I would also make the point that I trust the senator understands how this amendment would be perceived in many of these communities. The Greens may well make a decision to support this amendment nevertheless and to put it forward, and you are entitled to do that. I am simply making the point that, if the position of the Greens is to engage and empower communities, as they have talked about in their report, that is not how many of those communities would take this amendment, for the reasons I have outlined. There may be other policy reasons to put forward this amendment, but I simply make that point.

Question negatived.

Progress reported.