Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I've not seen the talking points that Senator Hanson-Young refers to, but, very clearly, fresh water is important to the survival of all civilisations—to state the obvious. Indeed, freshwater flows are important to the health and sustainability of river systems. And, as Senator Hanson-Young well knows, the operation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan under the Water Act 2007, introduced by the Howard government, was established to try to put in place sustainable diversion limits for the first time ever across the Murray-Darling Basin, and to date it's been very successful in doing so.

The Basin Plan has managed to recover some thousands of billions of litres of water that is now held under entitlements by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder for the more efficient and effective management of environmental assets across the basin. In doing so, consideration is given particularly to matters around flow rates and ensuring that in terms of those flow rates there is a system that is as well managed as can be possible, noting the significant challenges in the system, which is now much more highly regulated than it was in its natural state and has many demands placed upon it—quite reasonable demands.

Water is not only essential for human consumption and for environmental sustainability but also essential for food production, for agricultural productivity. These are important considerations across the basin as well. That is why our side of politics has always sought to ensure that we have a system that is sustainable and that also respects the needs and interests of all basin— (Time expired)