Jana Stewart (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm happy to withdraw that. The truth is that a decade of the coalition in government, in power, has desecrated this plan. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan recommended we restore 450 gigalitres of water to the rivers. Over the last decade, the coalition restored two gigalitres. Two gigalitres in just over nine years! At their pace, the plan would have been delivered sometime around the year 4000. Since we were elected in May last year, just 18 months ago, this Labor government has restored 26 gigalitres of water to our rivers.

The gross negligence and mismanagement of our water under the previous government has led to catastrophic environmental consequences for the flora and fauna in this region. Three years ago the drought brought the Darling River and those who depend on it to their knees, when the Darling River stopped flowing for more than 400 days. That is not how you care for country. Desperate for water, farming communities suffered and the native fish suffered an indelible loss of life by the millions. That is not how you care for farming communities and is not how you care for our native wildlife. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan should have been completed by 2024, and it would have been completed by 2024 if not for the reckless sabotage of this plan by the coalition. The Murray-Darling Basin Authority has advised the government that the delivery of this plan by the original deadline of June 2024 is no longer tenable. This is the cost of the negligence of the coalition.

Before the federal election in 2022, Labor promised that we would deliver the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in full, as it was designed and in line with science. Our Water for Australia plan outlined our approach to futureproofing Australia's water resources. It includes a five-point plan to safeguard the Murray-Darling Basin: first, to deliver the water recovery targets in the Basin Plan, including the 450 gigalitres of water for enhanced environmental outcomes; second, to increase compliance and improve metering and monitoring; third, to restore transparency, integrity and confidence in water markets and water management; fourth, to increase First Nations ownership and involvement in decision-making to facilitate access to cultural, spiritual, environmental and economic benefits; and, finally, to update the science underpinning the Basin Plan.

This bill is integral to achieving what we said we would do: recover 450 gigalitres of water to support better environmental outcomes. This bill is a product of extensive consultation. Over the last 18 months, this government has held almost 700 consultation activities, including forums and webinars. We've worked with states, territories and councils, farmers, irrigators, scientists and experts, environmentalists and First Nations communities. This bill comes after a historic agreement reached by the Commonwealth and basin states earlier in the year to ensure that the Basin Plan was delivered in full. We secured more time to deliver the remaining water based on expert advice. This means more time to recover 450 gigalitres of water for the environment, with a new deadline of 31 December 2027, and more time to deliver water infrastructure projects, with a new deadline of 31 December 2026. We secured more options to deliver the remaining water, including water-efficient infrastructure projects and voluntary water purchases. We secured more funding to deliver the remaining water and to support communities where voluntary water purchasing has flow-on impacts. This includes a Commonwealth support package to minimise any negative social and economic impacts associated with delivering the environmental outcomes intended to be delivered by the Basin Plan. Finally, we secured more accountability for all Murray-Darling Basin governments, including helping them to deliver on their obligations.

We have discussed these matters in good faith and at considerable length. Now is the time to act. We continue to achieve progress on the plan by supporting efficiency measures, which include projects to upgrade irrigation systems, line water delivery channels or install water meters. We are also supporting productivity improvements in manufacturing or irrigated agriculture and changes to urban water management practices to reduce water use. The first major change under this proposed legislation is in relation to the Water for the Environment Special Account, or WESA. WESA was set up by the government as a funding mechanism for these efficiency measures. This account was set up to provide funding to acquire the additional 450 gigalitres of water and remove physical constraints. There is over $1.3 billion left unspent in this account, which can help us reach this critical target. But the restrictions imposed on the account under the current legislation introduced by those opposite inhibit us in achieving that outcome. The proposed amendments will broaden the range of water recovery options to restore our rivers.

The second major change in this legislation is to the sustainable diversion limit adjustment mechanism. These projects are designed to achieve environmental outcomes while keeping water in productive use. Currently, 16 of these 36 projects are not forecast to be ready or operational by July next year. Of the 605 gigalitres that these projects are meant to keep in productive use, more than half may not be realised. It's clear that some of the original projects will never be delivered. If we're going to achieve the plan in full, we need to give the states more time to deliver viable projects. This is a very reasonable ask from the states. This bill gives them this extension.

The third part of this bill involves substantial and long-overdue reform to Australia's water market. Water markets are an important part of our agricultural system, but, as things currently stand, they lack integrity and transparency. Two years ago, the ACCC examined this market in some depth and found that its rules were inadequate and needed to be reformed. In particular, they found that there was a lack of quality, timely and accessible information for those participating in water markets. They found that there were a limited number of rules for market participants and no body to oversee their activities, which undermined confidence in fair and efficient markets. The ACCC also found that the complexity of the markets meant that opportunities were best understood and leveraged largely by professional traders and large agribusinesses with the time and knowledge to analyse and navigate them. Finally, all their research highlighted a lack of trust about whether key institutions were fair or working to benefit water users.

The bill amends the Water Act, Basin Plan and Competition and Consumer Act 2010 to implement recommendations made by the ACCC. The bill introduces a framework to create an enforceable, mandatory code for water market intermediaries. It provides the ACCC with increased information-gathering powers to facilitate transparency. It introduces civil penalties for market manipulation and doubles the penalty for insider trading. It will allow the ACCC, as the code and conduct regulator, to monitor water prices and investigate misconduct allegations. The bill acknowledges First Nations peoples' connection, history and water needs, and provides an additional $100 million in funding for the Aboriginal Water Entitlement Program. It also introduces mandatory reporting to demonstrate how environmental water holders have considered First Nations values and uses, and how they have involved First Nations peoples in environmental water decisions. These proposed amendments offer us a path forward from a decade of sabotage and negligence towards the delivery of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, and to this end I commend this bill to the Senate.