Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I bring this motion forward in the Senate today because we have seen unprecedented environmental collapse in the Murray-Darling Basin over the summer and unprecedented fish kills in the lower Darling. We've seen the River Murray and the Darling absolutely crippled by mismanagement, water theft and a failure to implement the objectives of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, which was meant to save our river system and give it a fighting chance.

We know that in the Murray-Darling we have our nation's largest river system—a river system that waters our nation's food bowl. It is a symbol of Australia and how we protect our environment and how we look after the sustainability of our environment. More than 2.6 million Australians call the Murray-Darling Basin home. The basin is the food bowl of our nation. The agriculture industry within the basin is worth $24 billion annually. It is responsible for producing around one-third of our nation's food. The basin is, of course, also rich in culture. It has been home to more than 40 Aboriginal nations for thousands and thousands of years. Tourism is worth $8 billion a year to basin communities.

There are 30,000 wetlands across the basin, and 16 are internationally significant. Over three million people have access to fresh, clean drinking water from the basin. The basin is unique, providing diverse habitats for 120 waterbird species and 46 native fish species. The fishing industry in the basin employs 10,000 people. The Murray-Darling Basin is the largest and most complex river system in Australia. It runs, of course, from Queensland, through New South Wales and even the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria, and into my home state in South Australia, spanning 77,000 kilometres of rivers. It covers about 14 per cent of Australia's landmass.

What we have seen this summer is the environment in collapse—a river system on the brink of death. We've seen millions of fish floating on the top of the river because there is not enough water for the system to survive. When I visited Menindee in the days following the second mass fish kill, I was struck by the heartbreak of the locals—farmers in the area who'd been there for generations. One particular man, who was in his late 70s, said to me as he picked up a big, dead Murray cod that this was one of the ones that had got away when he, as a kid, had been fishing on the banks of the Darling.

For generations and for years we have known that the water wars that govern the Murray-Darling Basin have left our river high and dry. We know that there is too much water being taken out of the system to give the environment the chance for resilience and to survive in the drier periods. We know, after years and years of debate on managing the Murray-Darling Basin, that we had to have a set of rules that were fair so that, whatever part of the basin you live in, you would know that the river would be given the chance to survive and be there for future generations. In order to do that, we knew that we had to return more water to the system. That's what the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was meant to do—return water to the river to give it a chance to survive.

Six years after the Murray Darling Basin Plan had been implemented, with $13 billion on the table, what we see is a river system in collapse—$13 billion of Australian taxpayers' money; six years of mismanagement, water theft and corruption. We've brought forward this motion today because the government doesn't want to talk about this. The water minister, David Littleproud, hasn't even bothered to go to Menindee and see the catastrophe for himself. We know that this government continues to do the bidding of big corporate irrigators, at the expense of the environment and river communities and those smaller farmers that need the river to survive. One of the elements of this motion is to call for the immediate repeal of the cap on water buybacks, because with $13 billion on the table we should be having water returned to the river, but instead we have a river system that is being sucked dry. Meanwhile, big corporate irrigators are having their pockets lined with Australian taxpayers' money. The government and the National Party are looking after their big corporate mates, while everybody else is expected to suffer in silence.

In my home state of South Australia, people are pretty angry at what is going on. They're pretty angry that, despite what was meant to be put in place to manage the Murray-Darling Basin, to give the river a fighting chance, we see millions of fish dead, a river system in collapse. Rather than putting more water into the river, lifting that ban on buybacks, getting water into the system, tackling the overallocation of water licences and regulating and properly accounting for the vast amounts of water that are being harvested across flood plains, this government says, 'Don't blame us; just pray for rain.' That's the Prime Minister's answer to the crisis in the Murray-Darling Basin right now: 'Don't blame the National Party. Don't blame Barnaby Joyce. Blame God. Pray for rain, and all will be okay.' There is a total lack of leadership coming from Prime Minister Scott Morrison right now.

This river system is our nation's lifeblood. It waters our nation's food bowl. We need this river if we are to survive as a country that prides itself on clean produce and sustainable agriculture. Those millions of fish floating on the top of the Darling over summer struck a chord with Australians right across the country. Everybody knows there is something wrong with this system. Everybody knows that too much water is being taken out of the river, and it's time we put some back. Australians aren't silly. They know who's been sucking our river dry; it's the greedy big corporate irrigators who care more about their profits than they do about the health of the river and keeping the river system there for future generations. Those big corporate foreign cotton farms don't care if the river runs dry. In fact, they are spending millions of taxpayers' dollars harvesting overland flows and floodwaters so that the water doesn't get into the river system, so they can keep it for watering their cotton crops. There is something rotten with the management of the Murray-Darling Basin, and every Australian who's been watching what's happened this summer knows it.

The Productivity Commission three weeks ago handed down a report into the implementation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. The Productivity Commission said very clearly that the objectives of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, to restore environmental flows, had been forgotten. Those objectives are now divorced from the way the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is being implemented. This parliament has approved $13 billion of taxpayers' money that was meant to be spent saving the river system, and we have a river in crisis and fish dead in the lower Darling.

The South Australian royal commission report that was handed down two weeks ago was very clear in its condemnation of the management and implementation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan as well. In fact, it confirmed many of the things that the government's own Productivity Commission report had said. Clearly, these two reports nail what is going on: maladministration, greed and unlawful activity. What we've seen is a Basin Plan that has become corrupted because of political and corporate interference. What we've seen is the management of the Murray-Darling Basin become more about lining the pockets of big corporate irrigators, the mates of the former water minister Barnaby Joyce, rather than securing the water the river needs.

When Mr Joyce was the water minister, he got caught bragging about how much water he'd taken off the environment to give to his mates in the corporate irrigating industry. What have we got now? A dead river, dead fish, an environment in collapse. If there is anyone responsible for this environmental disaster this summer, it's former water minister Barnaby Joyce. This is on his head. It's up to this government to do something about it. If they won't, this parliament should. One of the urgent things that needs to be done is water needs to be secured for the river. That doesn't mean praying for rain. That means lifting the ban on the buybacks, purchasing water and getting it into the system. We've had the Prime Minister and the current water minister say that there's nothing that can be done. They're in charge of this system. This has happened on their watch. They say it's just drought. Well, no, it's not. It's corporate cotton, it's corruption and it's climate change. While this government has its head buried in the sand on all three of those issues, it's never going to come up with a plan to save the river.

Back home in South Australia, we have the state Liberal government doing whatever they can to cover up the incompetence and corruption that have been going on in Canberra and interstate—so much so that the South Australian water minister was singled out in the South Australian royal commission report because of his failure to stand up for our state. The commissioner, Bret Walker, is clearly not a man to mince his words. He called out the irresponsibility of the South Australian government and the minister, saying that he may have even breached the ministerial code of conduct because he sold South Australia out so badly at the last ministerial council meeting.

I don't think South Australians give two hoots about who fixes the river; they just want it fixed. They want the water returned to the system as we were promised. We know that that extra 450 gigalitres that South Australia was meant to get will never be delivered as long as this government is in charge. South Australians deserve better than this. The people of Menindee deserve better than this. The people living throughout the Murray-Darling Basin and those river communities all deserve better than this.

It's not rocket science; the system has been over-allocated for decades. If we want to save the river, we have to give the environment back its fair share. It doesn't matter how much negotiation there is or how many tricks of accounting this government or the Murray-Darling Basin Authority want to dream up; Mother Nature is crying out for help. The Prime Minister says that what happened in Menindee is a disaster. Well, yes, it is—a man-made disaster on his government's watch, and it's time they did something about it. The things that can be done instantly are lifting the ban on buybacks and ensuring water is purchased for the environment and the river, including the extra 450 gigalitres that South Australia was promised.

South Australians living at the bottom of the system know very, very well that, if we don't fix this river system now, it's never going to happen. The environment is crying out for intervention. Business as usual must change. There is a view that the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is too big to fail—that we can't do anything about it because it's too big to fail. Well, it's not. It's failing now, right before our eyes, and we must intervene. It is our responsibility as parliamentarians in this place to look at what has happened, to listen to the scientists, to see the evidence before us and to act. The Prime Minister might want us to pray for rain. I want some water to be returned to the river, as do South Australians and river communities right throughout the basin. If we don't get the water returned to the river it will be too late. A million dead fish, $13 billion of taxpayers' money and some pretty greedy, happy corporate irrigators—clearly something is rotten and it needs cleaning up now. (Time expired)