Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

For the reasons that Senator Nash outlined, and at the great risk of being seen to be an apologist for the opposition, the Greens will be supporting this amendment. We believe that the integrity of the catchment should be maintained and that, at this critical time when there is simply not enough water, water should not be taken out of the basin. There are perfectly good, and much wiser, options that the Brumby government has not undertaken—and I do not mean the building of a desalination plant but the use of the water that falls over metropolitan Melbourne much more wisely—that would obviate the need for this diversion of critically needed water out of the Goulburn River basin and, therefore, out of the Murray-Darling Basin as a whole.