Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Water Resources and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition opposes item 78 in schedule 2 in the following terms:

(1)    Schedule 2, item 78, page 302 (lines 18 to 25), item to be opposed.

This deals with the new knowledge component. The minister would be very aware that, under the National Water Initiative, three reasons were advanced for why a reduction in water access would be available. They were: climate change, new knowledge and change of policy. The first, as the minister would know, is non-compensable. Regarding the second, irrigators would suffer up to a three per cent reduction in access, if there were any reduction in water access, as a result of the new knowledge component. The third, change of policy, was entirely to be borne by state and Commonwealth governments. However, the arrangements were changed. The Commonwealth government have since indicated that they will bear 100 per cent of the reduction.

Where this is of interest to the coalition is that, prior to the bill being introduced, discussions were to have taken place between industry and government around the definitions of climate change and new knowledge. What we are seeking to do in opposing this item is to delete the paragraph that relates to this area, given that a great deal of concern has been raised by industry about those definitions of climate change and new knowledge. We certainly believe that the parameters have been too tightly set around excluding climate change from being classified as new knowledge. As I said, we seek to delete that paragraph in the bill to return some degree of certainty to the industry in terms of the compensation that will be available.

People in the industry were very much of the view that, moving forward through this process, there would be consultation with them around those definitions. The concern from industry is—and quite rightly so—that if climate change were to be excluded from being assessed under the new knowledge component then all of the compensation would disappear and irrigators would be in a situation where a reduction in water allocation would be noncompensable.