Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I want to start with a question to the minister about how much the Drought Resilience Funding Plan that's going to be set up under this bill is acknowledging the reality of our climate crisis.

I had a read through the explanatory memorandum and, essentially, we're in a situation where drought is the new reality that we're dealing with because of our climate crisis. Hotter, drier climates are a reality. Minister, you yourself said in your closing statement that we are suffering through years of unrelenting drought. This is the new reality. We have got hotter, drier climates. That means less water. That means any drought fund, any projects, have to deal with the reality of: this is what climate change is imposing upon the Australian environment. And so, clearly, what we need to do is say: 'Right, this is the new reality, and these hotter and drier conditions are going to continue and they're going to get worse. Hopefully, we'll be able to do something about mitigating the climate change and reducing how much worse it gets. But hotter and drier climates are a reality. That means less water—less water across the board, less water for our agriculture and less water for our environment.'

To our Greens' eyes, this means that any money that you're spending, any fund that you're setting up, has got to start with its bottom line acknowledging that reality and then work out what needs to be done to support farming and regional communities to deal with this new reality—supporting them and supporting agricultural businesses to use less water, building resilience and supporting regenerative agriculture. In particular, with this being the new reality, there is less water to go around and agriculture needs to use less water because the environment's got to have some left for it. We've got to have water for our natural ecosystems, for our rivers and streams, for the ecosystem services that we all rely on—the health of our rivers and streams, and healthy wetlands and estuaries.

So, Minister, is this fund actually going to start with the bottom line of the whole underlying philosophy behind this drought plan dealing with the fact that we are in a climate crisis?