Nick Xenophon (SA, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

I know a thing or two about stunts and I say to Senator Birmingham that this is not a stunt. Calling for a judiciary inquiry is absolutely imperative. There should be no doubt of the need for a judicial inquiry into these incredibly serious allegations, first aired on the ABC's program on 24 July. I'll address the issue of ICAC in the brief time available. Subsequent revelations in other media outlets since that broadcast have made it abundantly clear that these allegations are just the tip of the iceberg that is emerging as a major national scandal that is challenging the ethos of our Federation. Allegations of water pump tampering, water theft and rorting, collusion between officials and irrigators, failures by officials to properly monitor compliance, the shutting down of compliance units in the face of alleged noncompliance investigations, irregularity and illegality are shocking and, together, they have an overwhelming stench of corruption about them.

Subsequent revelations of attempts to retrospectively make lawful what was a flagrant breach are absolutely inexcusable. These allegations are serious because they, in effect, reveal attempts to sabotage the $13 billion Murray-Darling Basin Plan that the basin states signed up to five years ago with bipartisan commitment. And this is not about state against state or irrigator against environmentalist; it's about the very integrity of a $13 billion plan and the officials and politicians that are meant to implement it fully, thoroughly and fairly. If we are fair dinkum about the very basis of our Federation, if our Commonwealth of Australia is indeed about the common wealth of all Australians, then we must recognise how vulnerable the lower reaches of the Murray-Darling Basin are, and in my home state of South Australia particularly—something that my friend and colleague, the member for Mayo, Rebekha Sharkie MP, is acutely aware of.

So when the government says there is no need for a judicial inquiry because of the four inquiries on foot, that is nowhere near good enough. It is an anaemic, weak excuse. The fact is that ICAC is limited in its jurisdiction, to one state in the basin, to New South Wales. It does not have the power to protect witnesses in other states that can come forward in terms of a broader inquiry about allegations beyond New South Wales—allegations that may relate to other basin states. It doesn't have the power to protect whistleblowers that a judicial inquiry has, because of the jurisdictional restrictions that it has.

There is another issue I want to raise very briefly. I foreshadow that I will be moving, in consultation with my colleagues, for an order for the production of documents in relation to how the Water for the Environment Special Account is being spent. Right now we have one page indicating how $1.77 billion is meant to be spent in terms of the environment special account. These are matters that we must address. If we are fair dinkum about implementing this nation-building plan for the nation's food basin and to look after our irrigators and the environment in the Murray-Darling Basin, a judicial inquiry is an absolute must.