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

Today we have seen an unbelievable short-sighted attack by crossbench senators on the future of the Murray-Darling water system. Apart from the blindingly obvious point that, without a healthy environment everywhere, no farm anywhere can be viable, the bipartisan progress already made on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan proves beyond doubt that all of its stakeholders can plan together and work together on multiple priorities to achieve multiple outcomes.

But, in their press conference this morning, those six crossbench senators claimed that this parliament needs to choose—that it needs to choose between either farmers or the environment. Those of us on this side of the chamber do not believe that you have to choose. In fact, you can walk and chew gum at the same time. But these crossbench senators have unwittingly highlighted the abyss of disarray and division—which we all know is there—into which the coalition has now drowned. They call for full responsibility for water, including water being stored to save the Murray-Darling Basin, to be placed in the unsteady hands—very unsteady hands, if I might say so—of a maverick Nationals minister, which would constitute a major blow to the health of the Murray-Darling Basin when combined with their demands to amend the Water Act and for the Basin Plan to be paused. These are possibilities dangerous enough to catch the breath of every South Australian and all Australians that support a healthy river system and a viable farming community.

Minister Joyce's reckless approach is not one which properly guards agriculture's long-term interests, nor does it balance the environment and production interests. His approach unsettles the consensus and will make it hard to secure support for even the most modest yet necessary and acceptable reforms. So let us be crystal clear. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan has bipartisan support at the federal level and has the support of the basin states—South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT—and importantly also has the support of the farming, environmental and Indigenous groups. There is no doubt that not everyone got everything they wanted from the plan. We know that. But it does remain supported—why? Because it is an excellent example of the sort of negotiated compromise that defines effective governance in this country. The Basin Plan will set basin-wide sustainable diversion limits and return 2,750 gigalitres to the environment. The basin states are required to prepare water resource plans that will give effect to the sustainable diversion limits from July 2019.

Around two million people live and work in the basin in communities ranging from fewer than 1,000 people to large urban centres such as Wagga Wagga, with over 45,000 people. A further 1.2 million people—