Mary Fisher (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support Senator Nash’s comments and, clearly, the opposition’s amendment. We need more water in the system. We are going through a process of getting more water back into the system. As we do that we also need a process to distribute the water. All we are after—and it is what the Australian public deserves—is proof positive that Kevin Rudd and the minister are delivering on their promise to the electorate of evidence based policy, in particular in respect of bringing water back into the system. Of course the coalition supports water buybacks. That was Malcolm Turnbull’s policy. Of course the coalition supports the purchase of property with water rights attached to bring water back into the system. But the point is that not only the coalition but also the Australian electorate deserve to see that the government has done the work to ensure that the right water is being purchased, that the right properties with water rights attached are being purchased and that an evidence based plan has assessed the consequences of both those things happening.

There is not enough water for the users who want it at the moment. That means, as the minister has acknowledged, that there are some really hard choices to be made. We are asking the government to make the hard decisions and show the Australian electorate—as the events unfold and after the event is just fine—that it has done the work to assess that this particular action should be taken, acknowledging the painful consequences. In terms of the community impact statements contained in this amendment, what we are talking about is proof positive, when certain communities have to bear pain—and they will; we accept that—that the government has done the responsible and evidence based assessment to show that, unfortunately, there will have to be some pain experienced by the community.

The minister has said that the government has a plan to manage a purchase program. The Australian electorate deserves to see, as we go through that program, that the government is doing the evidence based assessment at every step of the way. The minister has suggested that this particular amendment is unworkable, for some reason, including commercial-in-confidence. This amendment contemplates, after the event, evidence from the government—