Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

In respect of the Appropriation (Nation Building and Jobs) Bill (No. 2) 2008-2009, I move:

(1)    Page 12 (after line 12), after Part 4, insert:

Part 5—Murray-Darling Basin stimulus measures

18 Establishment of Murray-Darling Basin Stimulus Fund

Establishment of the Fund

        (1)    The Murray-Darling Basin Stimulus Fund is established by this section.

        (2)    The purpose of the Fund is to provide targeted assistance measures to improve the economic and environmental viability of the Murray-Darling Basin, including by:

             (a)    bringing forward $3.1 billion in funding allocated to buy back water entitlements and accelerate implementation of the Restoring the Balance in the Murray-Darling Basin program; and

             (b)    bringing forward $2 billion of the $5.8 billion allocated to water infrastructure programs in the Murray-Darling Basin under the Commonwealth’s Water Plan; and

             (c)    bringing forward $250 million in funding for pilot stormwater harvesting projects through the National Water Security Plan for Towns and Cities; and

             (d)    providing for the payment of grants of up to a total of $2 billion under the structural adjustment scheme required to be determined under section 19.

        (3)    Payments from the Fund are to be met from funds appropriated by the Parliament for the purposes of this section.

Payments out of the Fund

        (4)    Payments out of the Fund must be applied to the purposes of the programs specified in subsection (2).

Administration of the Fund

        (5)    The Fund is to be administered by the Minister.

        (6)    The administration of the Fund may include use of a reverse tender or similar initiative designed to quickly discover the price at which water users are willing to voluntarily sell water entitlements to the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder.

        (7)    The Minister may establish and fund appropriate administrative and advisory bodies to help manage the Fund.

19 Structural adjustment package

        (1)    The Minister must, by legislative instrument, determine a scheme in the nature of a structural adjustment package to allocate transitional funding to water users, water suppliers and rural communities in the Basin affected by the purchase by the Commonwealth of any water entitlements.

        (2)    A scheme determined under subsection (1) must provide for structural adjustment assistance to be allocated to communities, business and individuals to assist them to adjust to:

             (a)    reduced water availability; and

             (b)    reduced economic activity associated with the restructuring of irrigated agriculture or other enterprises; and

             (c)    changes in land use; and

             (d)    changes in the configuration of water supply and distribution systems.

        (3)    In determining the amount of funding to be allocated to any community under the scheme, regard must be had to the following factors:

             (a)    the minimum scale of economic activity required to enable the economic and social viability of communities; and

             (b)    the efficiency of the remaining water usage and distribution; and

             (c)    the ability of the remaining farming activities to adjust to climate change.

20 Interpretation

        (1)    In this Part, unless any contrary intention appears:

Minister means the Minister administering the Water Act 2007.

National Water Security Plan for Towns and Cities means the program within the Government’s Water for the Future plan that upgrades older pipes and water systems, installs new infrastructure and provides for practical projects to save water and reduce water losses plan.

Restoring the Balance in the Murray-Darling Basin program means the program within the Government’s Water for the Future plan that establishes the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, develops a Basin Plan and purchases water to restore ecological systems in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Water for the Future is the strategy to secure the long term water supply of all Australians announced by the Minister for Water and Climate Change on 29 April 2008.

Water Plan means the Commonwealth Plan for the Murray-Darling Basin which comprises the amendments to the Water Act 2007 that gave effect to the Intergovernmental Agreement on Murray-Darling Basin Reform signed at the 3 July 2008 Council of Australian Governments meeting.

        (2)    A word or expression used in this Part that is also used in the Water Act 2007 has the same meaning as it has in that Act.

This amendment is largely self-explanatory. It is to establish a Murray-Darling Basin stimulus fund to ensure that there is a bringing forward of $3.1 billion in funding allocated to buy back water entitlements. Currently there is a real concern that those entitlements are not being brought forward sufficiently to make a very real, appreciable difference to the river system. It also provides for the bringing forward of $2 billion of the $5.8 billion allocated to water infrastructure. I note that the modernising industry package in essence provides for about $1.5 billion to be spent until 2010-11, and there is a real concern amongst those communities that those funds are simply not sufficient.

The amendment also allows a bringing forward of funding in relation to the pilot stormwater harvesting projects, as part of the National Water Security Plan for Cities and Towns, and provides for the payment of grants up to a total of $2 billion for structural adjustment. That, it is acknowledged, is new money, although it should also be taken into account that moneys that have been set aside for exit packages which have not been used to any significant degree could be allocated for this. I understand the government’s position and I think I have a pretty good idea of what the opposition’s position is in relation to this.

I have previously spoken in this place about the turmoil facing the global economy and the terrible negative impact that this is having on our national economy. I have sat through the inquiries looking into the government’s proposed stimulus package and I have spent the better part of a week expressing my concerns to the government about this package. The Senate is a place where bills are meant to be scrutinised and, if need be, improved. There is not a monopoly on good ideas here—nor is there a monopoly of good ideas in the government or the opposition.

Ultimately, this is my concern about the government’s package: no credible economic stimulus package can ignore the crisis facing the Murray-Darling economy. 1.9 million people live in the Murray-Darling Basin. It provides over half of the food that our nation consumes and almost 100,000 direct farming and irrigation jobs. These jobs are under real threat. If these jobs go, the nation loses its food bowl and those 100,000 farmers, irrigators and workers will not be able to feed their families—nor will the hundreds of thousands of additional people whose jobs rely on the farmers, like the grain sellers, mechanics and local shopkeepers.

This government seems to think that the economy is something that only happens on the eastern seaboard, and that is wrong. The government wants to pretend my stance is parochial and all about my home state, and that is wrong too. I remind the government that the Murray-Darling River system flows through Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria and South Australia and that the economies of every one of those states rely on the economy of the Murray-Darling Basin.

This is truly a national crisis. It seems that because it is happening in rural Australia it is not being given the priority it deserves. The government have basically told the Senate that when it comes to the economic stimulus package it is their way or the highway. And now the government seem to want to go out and argue that a bunch of rogue senators are standing in the way of this package. Let me be clear about this: it is not just the odd senator or two who has great concerns about this package; it is me and more than half the Senate. If the government cannot convince more than half the Senate that their plan is a good plan then perhaps we need a better plan.

Professor Quentin Grafton from the Crawford School of Economics of the Australian National University is well known as an agricultural economist who has given advice to governments and bureaucracies over the years. He is well regarded. His advice could not be clearer. He compares the crisis facing the Murray-Darling Basin’s economy with the US Dust Bowl crisis in the 1930s in terms of the socioeconomic and environmental impact. Government action eventually turned that crisis around, and government action is needed to turn this crisis around. Professor Mike Young from the University of Adelaide, a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, has expressed his concern that there are many jobs at stake, many communities at stake, along the whole basin if buybacks are not brought forward immediately, unless there is that structural adjustment to the system.

Whether that happens or not, our basin economy is going to hurt. We cannot stop the pain but we certainly can minimise it. I have asked the government to bring forward these allocated funds, in terms of infrastructure, in terms of stormwater harvesting, and to provide the structural adjustment that is so desperately needed. From Charleville in the north to the Coorong in the south, from Broken Hill in the west to Bathurst in the east, and the hundreds of communities in between this plan will help them all. This plan will deliver extraordinary stimulation to the Murray-Darling economy and its environment. But the government have said no, so I must say no to their stimulus plan.

I made it clear in my first speech to the Senate and I want to make it clear again: I did not come to Canberra to make friends; I came here to make a difference. I urge all senators to support this amendment. If, for whatever reason, they cannot, my position is unchanged, but I indicate that I am prepared at all times to talk, to negotiate in good faith and with goodwill, with the government because I believe that this stimulus plan cannot have credibility in the absence of bringing forward expenditure that has already been allocated for the Murray-Darling Basin. I will not walk away from the people of the Murray-Darling Basin. It is important that we get this stimulus package right. That is my position, and it is a position I will not resile from.