Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

We had some sympathy for the other amendments although we believed they were inappropriate, but these amendments have some serious issues. Salinity levels in the Coorong are a real problem, but a range of studies have shown that even with the flows we are having, with the floods, the salinity levels in certain corners have not changed. It comes down to whether there are other hydrological issues at play there, such as the drainage at the lower reaches of the Coorong and whether waters that have historically drained to the sea should be directed back into the Coorong, where they initially went. If we followed this through, we could pull down Dartmouth Dam and remove everything on the river but it would not necessarily fix the problem we are trying to address. We would never meet the targets that the Greens want.

Of course, when we get these direct levels of electrical conductivity, which is what EC stands for, we allow a trigger of events to happen all the way through the basin, where every town will come up with some environmental outcome that they desire. Griffith will say that they want a certain outcome and Dartmouth will say they want a certain outcome and Bourke will say they want an outcome—the result of that being that no water will get to South Australia, because every town will have its own call on a target prior to it getting there. It cannot be so particular for certain area because, of course, once we let (6A) of this this amendment (5), especially part (c), go through, then it stands to reason that every senator from every state will walk in here with their own grab bag of certain targets that they want, which will bring the whole plan unstuck. One of the major overarching purposes of this legislation is to bring about a better outcome for South Australia, but if we become belligerent and targeted then what we do is call basically any senator from every state in the basin to come up with their desires of their targets in their areas and the whole plan will fall over.