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

What is irresponsible would be for senators from our home state of South Australia to argue for a position which essentially says that we will not draw any drinking water for Adelaide from the Murray River. The report recommends some 3,800 gigalitres be delivered to the Lower Lakes but fails to note that because of climate change and drought we are at record low levels. To get that amount of water, Senator Hanson-Young, would be more than all the water for six out of seven years—all the water that was diverted for drinking, farming and environmental purposes. That is what this would require. I absolutely stand by my proposition that it would be irresponsible.

Of course we are acting on the science. That is why we have taken over basin-wide planning. That is why we will ensure that this government will deliver what we said we would deliver, which is, for the first time in the nation’s history, a cap on extraction from the Murray-Darling Basin based on science—something no party in this chamber has previously delivered. We are acting on the science, but if we are going to talk about how we handle the extremely low levels of water that we currently are experiencing, particularly in the southern Murray-Darling, then we should get the facts on the table. I would say this to the senator: does she believe it is responsible for her to lobby for the imposition of a total ban on South Australian towns and cities—