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

I thank Senator Storer for his question and some advance notice of it. As I indicated this week, the government will be carefully considering the findings and recommendations of the Productivity Commission's five-year review of the basin plan and the South Australian royal commission. In respect to the royal commission, it will take time to digest the 746-page report. However, the government has made clear its view that the basin plan has been made consistently with the requirements of the Water Act 2007. The South Australian royal commission was commissioned by the South Australian government, and we would expect that they will respond in due course. The South Australian Premier has requested that the findings of the royal commission be considered at the next Council of Australian Governments meeting. A meeting of Murray-Darling Basin first ministers is expected to take place later this year.

With respect to the Productivity Commission's final report, the government has indicated it will be developing a response to it. It is appropriate that the response to the Productivity Commission is developed in close consultation with Murray-Darling Basin jurisdictions and communities, especially given that many of the recommendation go to those state and territory governments. The response will also be considered by the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council.

While I've looked through the Productivity Commission report, and there are some useful suggestions that the government will consider, I think it is also important that we put on the public record other things that are often not highlighted from that report. For example, the Productivity Commission identifies that water recovery is now within five per cent of the July 2019 target. While we might not exactly get there, it is a remarkable achievement, given the ambition of the basin plan when it was set in 2012. The Productivity Commission also highlights that the arrangements for managing environmental water are working well, with evidence of improved ecological outcomes at the local and system scale. In fact I think the Productivity Commission reported that there are something like 750 environmental watering events that have occurred in the last five years targeting specific environmental outcomes linked to the long-term objectives of the plan.