Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the work of the secretariat—Stephen Palethorpe, Chris Curran and the other very hardworking members of the secretariat—that helped produce this report, The management of the Murray-Darling Basin, and also the work of the Chair of the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee, Senator Heffernan, and the other members who participated on this committee. This really is the Senate committee system working at its best to drill down into an area of great public importance, of public policy importance—of importance to literally hundreds of thousands of Australians who live in the Murray-Darling Basin and to the millions of Australians who rely on the basin as one of the food bowls of Australia.

This report makes a number of key recommendations. These recommendations must not be ignored by government. I note that the committee looked into the whole issue of the Nimmie-Caira water buyback, and I am very grateful to Senator Heffernan for the work that he has done in raising this as an issue. I agree with the views of other members of the committee that the Nimmie-Caira water buyback ought to be referred for appropriate inquiry to the Australian National Audit Office. The Auditor-General's office ought to look at that whole issue as to whether all due processes were followed, because I think that there are some serious concerns about that whole process.

I think it is also important to note the matters that have been referred to by Senator Ruston and Senator Edwards. Those relate to South Australians being early adopters in the context of water efficiency measures and the $265 million fund—or is it a $240 million fund? Senator Ruston—it is not an interjection, Mr Acting Deputy President—is just putting her hands up in the air. She does not know, no-one seems to know, but it is very clear that that fund was basically an acknowledgement of the early adoption measures and water efficiency measures of South Australian irrigators. It appears to have been stalled. I am very concerned about that. This is an issue that I will take up with the new South Australian water minister, the Hon. Ian Hunter, who I must say in previous portfolios in which I have dealt with him as a state minister I have found to be a good and efficient and capable minister. This is something that we need to sort out because it is of vital importance to South Australia and to the integrity of the whole process.

I put out some additional comments in relation to this matter in addition to the very good recommendations of the committee, that there ought to be urgent evidence of the current marketplace buyback approach that will not distort the water and commodity market, that there ought to be clearer advice as to the methodology for setting the basin diversion limits, that there ought to be a close look at the comparative efficiencies of irrigation communities in the Murray-Darling Basin, and that irrigators must receive recognition for their past water efficiencies. They are just some of the additional recommendations I included in my additional comments because I believe that these are issues that must be addressed, that must be dealt with. Otherwise you will not have real equity in the scheme.

This report is a substantive report that must be dealt with as a matter of some considerable urgency. We are spending billions of dollars to get this right. It is not just the billions of taxpayers' dollars at stake; it is about the hundreds of thousands of people whose livelihoods and whose lives in the basin are about getting this plan right. I reiterate that I am grateful to Senator Heffernan, the chair of the committee, that the committee did recommend that the Nimmie-Caira water buyback go to the Australian National Audit Office for investigation. I can tell you, Mr Acting Deputy President, that was not made lightly. It indicates the seriousness with which the committee has considered this issue. The Australian National Audit Office ought to look at this. Obviously it is a matter for them, but I am hoping that they will look at the matter raised by the committee, because there is a lot of taxpayer money at stake. There was also a question of the integrity of the process and the actions of the New South Wales government, and the use of taxpayer funds ought to be looked at very closely by the audit office. I hope that it will do so as a matter of some urgency.

I commend this report. It is important and I am looking forward to the government's response to the very comprehensive recommendations because this is an issue that we cannot get wrong; we have to get it right for the sake of this nation and for the sake of those communities that rely on the Murray-Darling Basin.