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

Just to respond to the assertion that the government would be proposing to invest where there are no savings, that is clearly not the intention of the $5.9 billion. Obviously you seek to optimise savings and optimise the share between productive users and the environment, but those matters may depend on the project. There will clearly be a different availability of savings and therefore a different proportion of shares for the environment which may be able to be achieved in different parts of the basin. What I can say to you is that the objective, consistent with the guidelines and consistent with our negotiations with the states under the bilateral agreements for the states’ priority projects, is to achieve water savings. Precisely how those are allocated and what the quantum is are issues that need to be considered in the context of particular projects. What I can say is that we have been very clear about the policy objective of this money and we have been upfront and transparent about that. Consistent with Senator Nash’s view, we do not believe this amendment is necessary.

Question negatived.