David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today the opposition is suggesting that the government is in disarray over water policy. The disarray being experienced in basin communities, I can assure the Senate, is bipartisan in origin. The coalition and Labor own the Water Act and the Basin Plan, having supported both in this place. I chair the current Select Committee on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. We have heard stories from people who are suffering from over a decade of one-sided water reform. It is not just farmers. In fact, it is quite likely that farmers are not the main victims. It is agribusinesses of all kinds, people who sell rural supplies, seeds, pipes, fertilisers. It is people who sell and service machinery. It is people who work in shops. It is schoolteachers and nurses. It is people that most senators in this place will never meet and never plan on meeting.

Some of the people we spoke to were in tears. They are competent businesspeople who have put their life savings into businesses they started in good faith, in towns that depend on irrigation, only to have their lifeblood taken away through no fault of their own. Families, farms, businesses and whole communities are on the brink. We have heard stories of farmers who have ended their lives and we hear that the welfare of many people is hanging by a thread. Nobody is arguing there should not be change to the way we use and conserve water, but it is clear the changes to date are not fair, equitable or balanced. Too much water is being taken with scant consideration for the social and economic costs to people.

Everybody accepts that the environment needs more water than it was getting in the Millennium Drought. This is now happening. However, the environment benefits when it gets enough water. A cycle of drought and flood is entirely natural in the Murray-Darling Basin. The idea that our inland rivers should always be full is not natural; it is an aesthetic ideal espoused by dangerous imbeciles. There is no benefit in always keeping the rivers full and providing more water than the environment needs. We are seeing the result of a water plan developed in panic during the worst drought for a hundred years, rather than a measured and balanced approach to water use. Three months ago, when I attended a public meeting at Barham on the Murray River, there were a thousand people unhappy, frustrated and looking for answers. They told me that the price of temporary water was $120 a megalitre, up from $40 three years previously, and they were going broke. The price of temporary water this week hit an unprecedented $300 a megalitre. Like everyone we have spoken to, I accept that the environment of the Murray-Darling Basin should be looked after, but it is time for the government to take off the blinkers and realise that people are part of the environment. What we have is bipartisan disarray, bipartisan ignorance and bipartisan callous disregard for the welfare of people that we senators are supposed to safeguard. An environment in which people are suicidal is not a healthy environment. I urge the government to lift allowable water use or stop water buybacks while the select committee does its work and to transfer responsibility for water in full to the agriculture minister. Australia's agriculture should not be sacrificed on the altar of false environmental gods.