Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources) Share this | Hansard source

The announcement this week that the opposition is once again going to join us on the journey to restore health to the Murray-Darling Basin is an absolutely overwhelming relief to the millions and millions of people who rely on this valuable resource for their very livelihoods. Ever since the passage of the Water Act in 2007, the basin has enjoyed bipartisan support in federal parliament, and it would have been an extraordinary situation for the Australian Labor Party to now walk away from this plan, which it delivered in 2012. Our river communities up and down the basin require certainty, and that is what the Senate can unequivocally deliver today for those communities by defeating this disallowance motion. By restoring bipartisan support and commitment to the basin plan we can start the process of restoring the confidence in the plan in the wider community.

However, if you listen today to Senator Hanson-Young, you would believe that the basin was only minutes away from collapse. Nothing could be further from the truth. No-one is denying that the allegations that were raised of non-compliance were very serious, but by Senator Hanson-Young's own admission most of these issues have already been addressed by the government. She's just spent the last 20 minutes accusing the opposition of gaining nothing in their negotiation with the government, because we had already committed to fixing the problems that have been raised.

The plan is a very complex program. It's a once-in-a-generation opportunity to restore our wonderful river system to health. The plan is on track, and this government is committing to delivering this plan in full. We know the Greens don't support the plan, but, instead of working with us constructively to get the best possible outcome, they instead try to destroy confidence in the plan through misinformation, exaggeration and mischief. But we only have to remember that the only party in this place not to vote for the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in 2012 was the Greens.

Thankfully, many in this place agree that the delivery of this plan is absolutely essential and they have indicated that they will not be supporting this disallowance. That's because the sensible money is on the facts, the science based model to deliver a plan that recognises that there are social and economic as well as environmental imperatives that need to be addressed.

We also shouldn't forget that the SDL adjustment mechanism was incorporated in the basin plan in 2012 at the question of all of the basin ministers in all of the states that have the Murray-Darling Basin rivers and tributaries running through them, because they saw the necessity for flexibility in setting water extraction limits into the future. The mechanism was designed specifically to ensure that we didn't take water out of productive use—water out of our river communities—if we could deliver our environmental targets by cleverer means. The SDL adjustment is a legislated once-off opportunity to strike the balance—a good balance, the best possible balance—between the environmental, social and economic outcomes that we all seek to make sure that we have a healthy river system.

Just like the commitments to the Northern Basin Review, the SDL adjustment was part of the package of the basin plan, agreed by all basin jurisdictions and delivered by the then minister, the member for Watson. It allows for up to 605 gigalitres of irrigation water to remain in productive use in the southern basin without compromising the basin plan's environmental outcomes. This provides irrigators with the certainty that they need to get on with what they do best: growing the food that we love to eat and growing the fibre that makes our clothes.

The SDL adjustment mechanism also provides for the recovery of 450 gigalitres of additional environmental water through efficiency measures with neutral or improved social and economic outcomes. In fact, it was an independent report from Ernst & Young, at the request of the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council, that analysed and proved that there is a pathway by which we can deliver these efficiency measures. The agreed final package of projects means significant new Commonwealth investment in state led environmental works and other regional SDL offset projects across the Murray, Lower Darling and Murrumbidgee catchments. These include environmental works and projects, and changes to river operational rules that achieve basin outcomes using less water.

I acknowledge the constructive and comprehensive approach taken by Senator Patrick and his team in the Centre Alliance in analysing this amendment. I'm sure we will be able to convince him in the next few weeks of the merits of these projects and the package, because the amendment that is before us today is a win for basin communities and it is a win for our environment.

The government is absolutely committed to working to deliver a healthy and productive future for the Murray-Darling Basin and for the rural communities that depend on it for their livelihoods and their very existence. Disallowance of this amendment would have thrown into question the delivery of the basin plan, an outcome that is bad for the river and a disaster for communities which will have lost the certainty that the Murray-Darling Basin Plan has given them and will give them for future generations. The government is very pleased that the opposition has agreed to join with us today to vote against this disallowance.