Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Leave granted.

One Nation does support completing the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in principle, so we agree with (a), (b) and (d). South Australia is owed 450 gigalitres, with 70 gigalitres already underway. However, One Nation objects to (c). New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland have given up enough water. The farming community has been decimated by what has been taken so far. Enough is enough. Why would anyone think taking water from 2,000 kilometres away, in Queensland, to fix salinity in the Lower Lakes makes more sense than using the water that is right there now, flowing through man-made drains straight out to the sea every time it rains? This is madness. Fresh water flowing into the Southern Ocean is killing the seagrass beds, while the Coorong, which should naturally receive this water, is dying of hypersalinity. This is what Senator O'Neill wants to continue. This is madness. Turn the drains back around and leave the family farms alone.