Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—The government shares local community concerns for the Lower Lakes and the Coorong. After years of inaction and neglect, the Rudd government has a comprehensive plan to put the Murray-Darling Basin back onto a sustainable footing. Our plan is delivering results and that is why the government does not support this motion. Under reform secured by the Rudd government in 2008, the Commonwealth, not the states, will decide how much water will be taken out of the rivers via a new basin plan. This year, the draft basin plan will propose a new limit on how much water can be taken from the rivers. In preparing the basin plan the independent Murray-Darling Basin Authority is identifying key environmental assets, such as the Lower Lakes, and determining their environmental water needs. In the meantime, we are returning water to the rivers by purchasing water and delivering irrigation and infrastructure that uses less water.

As at the end of 2009, the Australian government had secured 766 billion litres of water entitlements at a cost of $1.2 billion. The Australian government has committed $330 million towards the issues facing the Lower Lakes and the Coorong and local communities and we are making real progress. We have committed $200 million towards South Australia’s long-term plan for this site, now nearing completion. We have committed $120 million to vital irrigation and potable pipelines. We are contributing $10 million to biomediation as a means of tackling acidification and an additional 340 gigalitres of water from a range of sources will now flow to the Lower Lakes. These and other actions underway are helping sustain the internationally significant environmental values in the Coorong and Lower Lakes, a commitment that the Ramsar secretary-general noted on his recent visit.

Question negatived.