Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to speak in support of the Water Amendment Bill 2008. The purpose of this bill is to amend the Water Act 2007 to make changes to the cooperative water planning, management and regulatory regime in the Murray-Darling Basin. The measures contained in the bill have been made possible because of a historic Council of Australian Governments agreement achieved by the Rudd Labor government. This agreement gained the commitment of the governments of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT to fundamental reform of the planning and management of the Murray-Darling Basin’s water and other natural resources as a whole in the context of a new federal-state partnership.

This commitment has been formalised by the signing by the relevant state and territory governments of an intergovernmental agreement on Murray-Darling Basin reform. The IGA has paved the way for new governance arrangements for the Murray-Darling Basin to be put into place. Importantly, the state and territory governments concerned, together with the Commonwealth, have committed to a new culture and practice of basin-wide management and planning. Also, the changes being brought forward by this bill reflect agreement by the relevant states to refer constitutional powers to the Commonwealth to broaden the Commonwealth’s planning, management and regulatory powers so far as the Murray-Darling Basin is concerned.

The Murray-Darling Basin is Australia’s most important agricultural region, with production worth $15 billion in 2005-06, accounting for no less than 39 per cent of the nation’s gross value of agricultural production. The gross value of irrigated agriculture production in the basin in 2005-06 was $4.6 billion. The volume of water consumed in 2005-06 for agricultural production was almost 8,000 gigalitres. This amounted to 66 per cent of Australia’s agricultural water consumption. These figures underline the importance of the Murray-Darling Basin to Australia’s agricultural production and the importance of the rivers in the basin to the supply of the water necessary to sustain this level of agricultural production. With the very large decline in average annual rainfall and in river catchment inflows over several years, improved water management within the basin has become critical to the future of the basin’s agricultural output and to people living in the basin, not to mention Adelaide and other population centres that rely on basin water for direct human needs.

On 1 September this year in Brisbane, the Minister for Climate Change and Water addressed the 11th International River Symposium. In her speech, the minister, Senator Penny Wong, made specific mention of the situation in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia’s most extensive and important river system. In referring to the basin, the minister had this to say:

…we’ve inherited a significant overallocation problem in surface and ground water resources, and unfortunately a history of neglect for the health of our rivers and wetlands.

The minister went on further:

We’ve also inherited old and often-outdated water infrastructure, and many irrigated farming systems and practices that fall well short of best practice in efficient water use.

The minister was, of course, putting into words what has become abundantly evident to the majority of Australians, not only those who live and earn their living in the Murray-Darling Basin. Whilst recognising the complexity of the issues involved, there is a feeling of frustration amongst many Australians that the problems in the basin have been allowed to go on for far too long. Many feel that the seriousness of the issues affecting water availability and river flows in the overall basin have been known for a decade and that progress to deal with changing circumstances in the basin has been far too slow.

Against this, with the election of a Labor government we have for the first time a federal minister for water. All the relevant state and territory governments have since signed an intergovernmental agreement in respect of the future governance of the Murray-Darling Basin’s water resources. As well, an enormous amount of work has already been done behind the scenes to put into place the required organisational structures and to fast-track the necessary practical research and planning to move forward rapidly with the necessary reforms in the way Australia manages its most important river system. This work continues to proceed at a rapid pace. Further, the Commonwealth government is complementing its governance reform with the $12.9 billion Water for the Future program. This program has four priorities: tackling climate change, supporting healthy rivers, using water wisely and securing our water supplies—all vital for the future of water supplies in this country.

Also, the Rudd government has announced investments of close to $3.7 billion for significant water projects in South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory. These projects will improve irrigation efficiency, raise the productivity of water use and make water savings that will be returned to the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin. The Commonwealth government is buying water entitlements from willing sellers in the water market to tackle overallocation in the Murray-Darling Basin so that rivers and wetlands will get a greater share of water when it is available. Nonetheless, while we are certainly not at ground zero, as far as some of the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin are concerned we are still uncomfortably close to the bottom. This bill is an essential element in putting into place a solid foundation to achieve what has to be done for the future of the basin.

In this regard I would like to quote Professor Michael Young, who is Professor of Water Economics and Management at the University of Adelaide and a spokesperson for the well-known Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. In his opening remarks at the Senate public hearings into the Water Amendment Bill 2008 conducted by the Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport in Canberra on 12 November 2008, Professor Young had this to say:

I would like to start by praising everybody—the governments of Australia, the state and the Commonwealth. The rest of the world is watching how Australia struggles to solve the Murray-Darling’s crisis and we really are at the eleventh hour. I would like to start by congratulating everybody on the progress made.

Professor Young followed up by saying:

The time has come to expedite implementation. We could go on arguing about reforms and trying to improve things, but the cost to communities and to the river itself is too high.

This puts it in a nutshell. We have done what is necessary to give ourselves the best chance of success as we go forward. It is now the time to back up these efforts with real action on the ground. In this regard, I think we have been particularly fortunate to have a minister who has worked tirelessly to come to terms with the enormous complexity of the task she has before her. She has been able bring the vast majority of stakeholders with her and has been able to engage cooperatively and collaboratively with the relevant state and territory governments in a way where long-term principle has never given ground to short-term expediency. This is something that, in time, Australians will look back on as a great and lasting achievement of the Australian Federation.

As I have already mentioned, on 12 and 13 November the Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport held two days of hearings in Canberra on the Water Amendment Bill 2008. Whilst the committee received much useful and constructive input from those who gave evidence at these hearings, the two main and urgent messages that the committee received were that there is general support and, in most instances, strong support for the bill; and that the bill should be agreed to—and I hope you are listening on the other side—and passed through the Senate as quickly as possible. It was generally felt that the organisational structures and operational mechanisms that the bill will facilitate provide significant scope to finetune and, where necessary, improve the complex process of implementing the necessary reforms. The orderly, fair and sustainable management of a large inland river system which passes through four states and the ACT is an immensely complex task, particularly in a situation where declining river flows mean that demand for water has outstripped the available supply.

Sadly, time is against me, but in wrapping up I will say that this bill and the progress that has been made over the past 12 months demonstrates what can be achieved by a disciplined and cooperative approach to dealing with problems as large and as complex as those of the Murray-Darling Basin water management regime—problems that have been accumulating for over 100 years. Because the productive capacity of the basin is so vital to agriculture in this country, all Australians have a stake in the reform and improvement of water management in the basin. I believe the measures contained in this bill and the actions taken by the Rudd Labor government and the minister over the past year have laid the foundations for a secure future for the Murray-Darling Basin. On that, I commend the bill to the Senate.