Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Davey. Minister Burke was a very fine agriculture minister. He was also a very fine environment and water minister, who oversaw the delivery of the first Murray-Darling Basin Plan—a plan that is absolutely essential to deliver if we are to save agriculture on the eastern coast of our country. There are thousands of jobs and hundreds of communities that are depending upon the delivery of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. They were profoundly let down by 10 years of Liberal and National Party governments, which delivered two gigalitres out of the 450 required for environmental recovery.

What we have said is that, in delivering our plan, we will provide more time for it to be delivered, we will provide more options to deliver the remaining water—including water efficiency infrastructure projects—