Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I am trying to, in the short time I have, provide some context here. I obviously have not seen those quotes that have been reported in the question, so I cannot comment on them completely in the context that they were made in, but what I am explaining is that we are committed to implementing the plan in full. But under that plan there are certain changes to the water delivery that might be made contingent on other events, and there are set criteria that have to be met for those events to occur. So for this 450 gigalitres the plan explicitly says that the additional water can only be delivered if it is done in a way which achieves mutual or improved social or economic outcomes. So to make that change, and to add this additional water, if you like, as a change—if you want to use it in those terms, although it is not changing the plan as such, but it would change the amount of water delivered—we need agreement on that outcome. And there is some disagreement among states and territories—that is my understanding—about what can be achieved or whether this water can be delivered consistent with that criterion that was agreed to in the plan.