Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan needs strong bipartisan support, which I outlined in the opposition's second reading contribution, and serious and robust consultation, of course, with those key basin states. As such, Labor will not support changes to the framework that have not been through a process with those key basin states.

These amendments, to be honest, are laughable because they effectively accuse the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder of hoarding water, against the broad triple-bottom-line consensus achieved by the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, and change the rules of the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder at the last moment to enable it to sell off excess water in the face of necessary and confidence-building accounting practices.

So the opposition does feel that these amendments have been sprung on the Senate at the final moment, without anything like the necessary consideration and consultation required. Consultation has already occurred to bring this bill to this place, with various stakeholders—including Indigenous stakeholders, as I referred to in my second reading contribution. They are key to ensuring that we have a robust outcome when we are talking about water in these key regions in these key states. So, because this is an amendment that has not gone through any of that process, the Labor Party will not support this amendment.