Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am sure we all enjoyed being lectured on scientific expertise and intellectual rigour by you, Senator Rennick, so thanks for that. I also rise to speak on the Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill 2023. While I won't pretend to be an expert or make up some science on the run, I can say, sure as sure, that there is nothing more important to my home state of South Australia than the future of our river. This is an existential question for my state. My state's future depends on the river's future. The health of my state and the people within it depends on the health of our river, and this bill will get us back on track to delivering the Murray-Darling Basin Plan as designed and in line with the science.

It will see the promised 450 gigalitres restored to the basin—those 450 gigalitres that are essential to the health of our river—to ensure our river can withstand the next dry spell. This gives us more time, options, funding and, critically, more accountability—all things we need because we've had a decade of sabotage by the Liberals and contempt by the Nationals, and this is the only way we will get there. Everything Senator Rennick just said gives everyone the indication they need on what those opposite think of the river and the science, and their commitment to doing something about the unfolding challenging and the risks not just to the basin as a whole but also to my state of South Australia.

Those are existential questions for my state. We need our river to be healthy in order to be healthy. But for almost a decade, the other side—the Liberals and the Nationals—have failed on this front. The Nationals have been running the show. There are so many South Australians deeply disappointed that there have been so few Liberal South Australian voices on this. I acknowledge those who have stood up for our river in recent years, but they have been far too few and far too soft. For almost a decade the former coalition government ignored their own reports that the plan was in trouble. They've ignored the comments of one of their own. Even John Howard said during the millennium drought that the old way of managing the basin had reached its use-by date. Even John Howard knew we needed to 'confront head on'—and these are his words—'and in a comprehensive way, the overallocation of water in the Murray-Darling'. Instead, the other side have gone in the opposite direction. They undermined their own projects so that they couldn't be delivered. They stalled and stalled; they sabotaged and sabotaged. In South Australia their own minister capitulated to the other states.

My state of South Australia cannot afford this any longer. Delivering the plan requires strong and decisive action. That is what our government promised; that is what our government will deliver. As I have said in this contribution and in many others: if we don't do this, if we don't take the action needed to protect the Murray-Darling Basin and the plan which upholds it, the lifeblood of my state is at risk. That's what the river is to South Australia. We must ensure the water resources of our most productive region, the Murray-Darling Basin, are better managed to withstand longer, deeper droughts; more frequent floods and bushfires; and everything else that we know climate change will throw our way. Our basin is treasured for its productivity and its beauty. We know irrigated agriculture in the basin produces about 15 per cent of Australia's food and fibre. Tourism is worth $11 billion. It's home to 2.3 million Australians, and more than three million people drink its water each and every day. Within it we have 16 internationally significant wetlands, 35 endangered species and 120 different species of waterbird. This is why it is so imperative that this bill passes. We need to implement the Basin Plan in full. That includes recovering the 450 gigalitres of additional environmental water the basin needs. This is the only way we're going to get there.

The bill also implements recommendations from the Water market reform: final roadmap report, a report, along with an ACCC report, which was commissioned by the previous government but not acted upon. This will ensure that transparency, integrity and confidence are restored in our water markets. The bill before us removes restrictions on the recovery of water and the extension of time lines, including for water saving and efficiency projects. It also represents a significant investment in a nature-positive Australia—those precious wetlands, endangered species and waterbirds, all of which deserve our protection. It gives us more time, more options, more funding and, critically, more accountability. It's a plan that will get us back on track.

It could not be more important to my home state of South Australia that we get back on track. We know delivering the plan requires strong, decisive action. We need to deliver the plan in full because my state cannot afford to wait any longer. We cannot continue with the stalling and the capitulation anymore. We need to take action. Our government will take action. That requires listening to the science, not making it up on the run. That's what we will do. This is an existential question for my state of South Australia. We will get this back on track.

(Quorum formed)