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

Just to confirm: the government does not support this amendment. I am aware of the issues that have been raised by some New South Wales irrigators, in particular. The government has included in the bill a risk assignment framework which appears at schedule 3A. The proposed section 75(1A) in the bill simply clarifies the current operation of the Water Act and clarifies that reductions arising from the new knowledge and government policy categories of risk do not overlap with the third category of risk set out in the NWI, which encompasses reductions arising from seasonal long-term changes in climate and periodic natural events such as bushfires and droughts.

The amendment the government is proposing in the bill ensures that the bill reflects the three categories of risk set out in the relevant clauses of the National Water Initiative, which are 48 to 50. The Water Act originally intended to do this, and does so by reference to the NWI. On review, the government considered that this issue would benefit from clarification. I would emphasise, though—and I have had a range of discussions with stakeholders on this issue—that the authority will be able to consider risk assignment. The amendment does not change the basis of that consideration, and obviously the government will be looking to that consideration, as will users in the basin for the purposes of their views on the risk assignment allocation.