Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I thank the minister for acknowledging he has no idea what a further extraction of 1,700 gigalitres from groundwater is going to do to the 3,200 gigalitres promised, but I ask: given the plan is based on delivering considerably less water than the science says is needed to save the Murray-Darling Basin, to save the magnificent red river gums and the Coorong, will the government confirm that this plan is actually a political exercise, not one based on science, not one based on climate predictions or a concern for the environment and that in fact the government is now condemning the river and its communities to a very uncertain future? (Time expired)