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

Given that Senator Hanson-Young has raised the issue of dead fish, I want to point out one fact. I pointed this out yesterday, but now I will to the whole chamber here in question time. That is that it is dams that help us regulate the system to protect fish. It is dams that help us keep water in the river. You can go, Senator Hanson-Young, up to New England and the Copeton Dam and see that, downstream of the Copeton Dam, there are no fish kills because we have a dam that is able to keep water in the river. Upstream of Copeton Dam there are fish kills because there are no dams. And guess what? The Greens are opposed to dams. They are opposed to them all. They don't want any of them. We have a regulated system and it is being managed well. It is the fact that sometimes during dry times we have no water for farmers and no water for rivers. That is the system. Right now, the Greens would have you believe there are farmers out there ripping water out of the basin. Where I am from, where Senator O'Sullivan is from and in northern New South Wales, they are having no water use at all. The system is being managed in accordance with the environmental factors we have. It is a much better system now thanks to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.