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

I know you want us to take over water but I think I have enough on, so I might leave that for a moment. If I may say so, Senator Xenophon, I think the policy problem to which you are referring is precisely why we are saying that, as a condition under this regime, these forests will need to have adequate water entitlements. There will be a question of what ‘adequacy’ means. Senator Nash raises the question: ‘If you are in an area which is non-irrigated and not regulated, why would you need to have a water entitlement?’ That will be an issue that the government will have to work through. But I think the point you are making is precisely why we wanted to include this, which is that we need to progress water reform but recognise that some parts of that will progress more quickly than others. We can make the requirement to have an adequate water entitlement a condition of credits under this scheme for forests.