Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McKenzie for her question. You talk about wanting some certainty for these communities; the best way to get some certainty for these communities is to finish the debate on this legislation and vote in favour of it. Then we can get on with the job of restoring the health of the Murray-Darling River.

In terms of the constraints management strategies and the time lines, they are specifically referred to in the Basin Plan. If you like I can read those out for you:

(1) Within 12 months after the commencement of the Basin Plan, the Authority must prepare a constraints management strategy that:

(a) identifies and describes the physical, operational and management constraints that are affecting, or have the potential to affect, environmental water delivery; and

(b) assists all jurisdictions to participate in constraint measures in order to allow environmental water to be used to maximum effect and to maximise the benefits of any increase in held environmental water; and

(c) evaluates options, opportunities and risks to water users, communities and the environment, associated with addressing key constraints, including through constraint measures that are relevant to measures that might be notified under section 7.12; and

(d) assesses the impacts of modifications of constraints on environmental water delivery and third parties, as well as downstream impacts, and assesses options to address those impacts; and

(e) identifies mechanisms by which impacts on third parties can be addressed.

Of course, this is all in the current Murray-Darling Basin Plan.