Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I will speak for the coalition on this message that we have received and the motion before us. As we all know, the Water Amendment Bill 2008 was debated at great length in this chamber last week. Tonight I want to pay particular tribute to Senator Fiona Nash, who led the debate for the coalition, as the then shadow parliamentary secretary for water resources and conservation, and did an outstanding job. It is with much regret that I, as the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, note that she has now resigned from that position, having done tremendous work in that role and in relation to this bill in particular. I also want to acknowledge the roles of Senators Fisher and Birmingham in the debate on this very important bill in this chamber last week.

There were a number of amendments made to this bill by the Senate that were supported by non-government senators and that we believe did improve the bill. The coalition sought to amend this bill because we believe that, in the original form it came into this place, it did not go far enough in delivering the national water reform which our coalition in government initiated and drove throughout 2007, only to be frustrated by the Victorian Labor government. Regrettably, this bill repeats the errors of 2007 in relation to the Victorian Labor government, in that it lets the Victorian Labor government off the hook with this quite destructive and outrageous proposal that the Victorian Labor government has to build a north-south pipeline to divert no less than 75 billion litres of water per year from the Goulburn and Murray rivers and the Lower Lakes to the city of Melbourne—an extraordinary event in this, the 21st century.

Last week in this chamber, with the support of all non-government senators, the coalition sought to improve the bill and improve water management in this country. We sought specifically to stop the construction of the north-south pipeline and the extraction of water from the Goulburn and Murray rivers for use in that pipeline. We sought to ensure that water saved through the Living Murray initiative is immediately released for environmental flows in the Goulburn and Murray rivers and to replenish the Lower Lakes, which are in such desperate need. We called for the government to immediately deliver $50 million in emergency relief funding to the Lower Lakes and Coorong communities in my and the minister’s home state of South Australia. We also sought to make amendments in relation to transparency, targets for infrastructure, community impact statements and structural adjustment. Additionally, we sought to protect farmers from the risks associated with ‘the new knowledge’ relating to climate change. The government’s definition of this new knowledge, of course, is not clear and they have not consulted with the industry on the potential ramifications of this approach. Regrettably, it was only the coalition that stood in this place to protect farmers in this way.

The Senate did support our amendments regarding the north-south pipeline, the Lower Lakes and additional transparency in this bill, and we sent the bill, as amended, to the House, seeking the support of Mr Rudd and his Labor colleagues in the lower house. As I have said, the Labor Party in the Senate opposed those critical amendments, and, regrettably, they opposed those amendments in the House of Representatives yesterday. The Prime Minister has now sent this legislation back to the Senate, rejecting the Senate’s endeavours to improve this bill. Regrettably, the Labor Party have not even sought to negotiate any of these amendments; they are instead simply resorting to the thuggery we are used to from the Labor Party in relation to the coalition and other senators, under the false pretences of accusing us of holding up water reform. This is the base cynicism of the Labor Party in full flight.

We in government, as the coalition, drove national water reform in this country. We remain committed to doing everything possible to ensure the health of the Murray-Darling Basin. We did our utmost to oppose this really outrageous north-south pipeline, and the Labor Party simply rejected our position. Mr Rudd and Senator Wong—as I said, a fellow South Australian—now have political ownership of this dreadful and destructive pipeline. They are the only ones now who can stop the pipeline. They have it in their power to stop the pipeline. They have refused to do so and, in the process, have treated with contempt the will of the Senate. We will not let Mr Rudd hold national water reform hostage whilst he gives a green light to this pipeline. It is now very much Mr Rudd’s pipeline. Regrettably, this is a signal that he has given up on saving the Lower Lakes in our state of South Australia.

While we stand by our amendments in the Senate, we will not be insisting on these amendments in the chamber today. To do so, regrettably, would not stop this pipeline being built or water going down it but would delay the implementation of other important reforms in this bill. We do this with utter dismay at Labor’s complete lack of interest in helping the Lower Lakes and protecting the long-term future of the Murray-Darling Basin. We are not insisting on our amendments after having consulted closely with the irrigation community, farmers and individual irrigators. We cannot wait another summer for urgent national water reform to take place. We cannot let the actions of Labor in the state of Victoria again delay our vision for reform of the management of the Murray-Darling Basin.

More than 20 different farming and irrigation groups have told us that they are afraid that the Rudd Labor government will use any delay to this bill to punish them over the forthcoming summer. Those groups include the National Irrigators Council, the New South Wales Irrigators Council, the Gwydir Valley Irrigators Association, the South Australian Murray Irrigators, the South Australian Irrigators Council, the Queensland Irrigators Council, the Ricegrowers Association, Murray Irrigation, the Horticulture Australia Council, the Murrumbidgee Horticulture Council, Murrumbidgee Irrigation, Namoi Water, Auscott, Mungindi-Menindee Advisory Council, South Western Water Users, the Central Irrigation Trust, the Renmark Irrigation Trust, the Bondi Group, the National Farmers Federation, the Victorian Farmers Federation and AgForce.

They have reasonable fears, and their fears are: firstly, that the Rudd government will continue to hold farmers’ infrastructure funding hostage to their position; secondly, that the Victorian Labor government will hold water back from the river; and, thirdly, that the South Australian Labor government will use this as a reason to flood the Lower Lakes with sea water, which we have already seen warning signs of in my own state’s major newspaper today and which would be a tragedy for the Lower Lakes. For these reasons, as I said, the coalition will not insist on its amendments in the Senate tonight. But Labor’s intransigence means that we now cannot, through this bill, stop the north-south pipeline, tragic and regrettable as that is.

In addition, the coalition will not be supporting any more substantive amendments to the bill, so that it can proceed through the Senate, we hope, tonight. We do this with enormous dismay and disgust with the actions of this new Labor government. As a South Australian I want to again put on record how disappointed we are that this government is on the face of it completely ignoring the plight of the Lower Lakes. Today the Alexandrina Council, based in the Lower Lakes, has again confirmed its complete opposition to the north-south pipeline. It simply cannot understand why the government is treating it with such contempt.

The coalition will elevate our campaign on the north-south pipeline and the Lower Lakes. We have introduced a private member’s bill in the House of Representatives, and we will introduce one in the Senate, calling for the Rudd government to take immediate action on these issues. I also foreshadow a coalition amendment to the motion before the Senate that the report of the committee be adopted. The amendment calls on the government to stop the north-south pipeline and immediately act to protect the Lower Lakes. We believe the Rudd Labor government must deliver urgent assistance to these basin communities. If they do not, the outcome will be disastrous for Australia’s agricultural industry and food security.

We urge the Senate tonight to support our amendment to the motion, to call on the government to block Mr Rudd’s pipeline and to release the urgent funding to support the Lower Lakes and Coorong communities. I give the assurance that the coalition will not stop fighting on behalf of the people of the basin for national water reform and, most importantly, to stop this disastrous north-south pipeline.