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

We will deliver water back to environmental flows for the Murray-Darling Basin consistent with the Basin Plan. Our position has always been the same. That is why we have just completed the Northern Basin Review that was part of the Basin Plan. That review has recommended that the water recovery target in the northern basin should be reduced by 70 gigalitres. I know that Senator Hanson-Young might not like to take the advice of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority but that is the independent umpire in this area. That independent umpire has concluded that that 70 gigalitres that would not be recovered in the northern basin would lead to a three-gigalitre reduction in the water that goes over the barrages in South Australia. That is the connectivity between the north and the south. So 70 gigalitres in the north translates to only three gigalitres less at the barrages. According to Senator Hanson-Young and the philosophy of the Greens, they would prefer us to have a policy that would lose 200 jobs in the northern basin for that three gigalitres. That is not our approach, Senator Hanson-Young. Our approach is a balanced approach, and we will not put Australian jobs ahead of every dream the Greens might have. (Time expired)