Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I am really pleased to be standing up here today to speak to the Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill 2023 because it is a real win for our environment. It's a real win for the health of the Murray-Darling system, which is the lifeblood of so much of Australia. I particularly want to congratulate Senator Sarah Hanson-Young for the work she has done negotiating with the government, and I want to congratulate the government as well, for moving this legislation, for listening to the Greens, listening to the community, listening to First Nations peoples, listening to the environment and actually moving to legislate for some real, very significant wins for the river system.

What is being guaranteed in this bill, guaranteed in law, is that our environment will finally receive the 450 gigalitres of water, the minimum that is needed to protect our precious river systems. This is a real breakthrough. It's going to deliver water across the whole basin, the entire basin—north and south. As I said, it's a minimum. Since the Murray-Darling plan was first developed there has been more than 2,100 gigalitres of water allocated each year, but according to what the river really needs there's a shortfall of almost 750 gigalitres a year. So the 450 is not an extraordinary amount. It's not over the top. It's not unreasonable. It is the minimum that's required to keep our river systems alive. It is a really good news story that at least we are getting that minimum.

There are other things that have been negotiated and included in this legislation. The Greens have secured an independent audit of water in the basin to stop the rorts, to insert integrity and restore trust after a decade of mismanagement from vested interests. And, as Senator Cox has just outlined, we've secured $100 million for First Nations water and the Aboriginal water entitlements program to protect country and culture from greed and over-extraction. For the first time—and it's extraordinary that it's the first time—the laws governing the Murray-Darling Basin will recognise the unique connection that First Nations peoples have with the river system. This is a really significant piece of legislation.

This breakthrough agreement will help protect the river from over-extraction, it's going to help protect the river from the massive fish kills and environmental degradation as our climate continues on its fairly chaotic but increasingly hotter way. It's particularly important that we have achieved this breakthrough now. When the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was being developed, I remember my late wife, Penny Whetton, a climate scientist, working on it. The fact is that climate change wasn't acknowledged in that original plan, the impacts of climate on our river systems were ignored. We know, and we've known for a very long time, what the likely impacts of global heating are on the Murray-Darling system—the reduction in water going into many parts of the basin that's likely to result, and the increased heat, meaning the increased evaporation and the increased water temperatures in the rivers. To actually get this water now, as we face really dreadful and tragic likely impacts of climate change, is so important.

The other thing that this legislation is going to do is finally get in place a new agreement with all the basin states except Victoria. I do want to go to the issue in Victoria. There's a lot of the basin in my home state of Victoria. The Murray River rises in north-east Victoria. We have very significant tributaries of the Murray that flow through Victoria. It is crazy that the Victorian government haven't signed onto this plan. And so, while I'm standing here congratulating the federal Labor government—for working with the Greens, listening to the Greens, listening to the environment, listening to the First Nations people—for some reason, the Victorian government haven't been signing up. They have had this absolute blockage on water buybacks, which is crazy. We know that water has been overallocated in Victoria, just like it has been overallocated across the rest of the country. We know there's no economy and there are no jobs on dead rivers. If you're concerned about the future of agriculture in Victoria, if you're concerned about the future of the environment, if you're concerned about First Nations rights and First Nations justice, then you have to acknowledge that there are limits as to how much water you can take out of the rivers. The system just doesn't allow us to make more water. Sure, there are going to be some good years where there's a lot more water flowing in but, overall, the trend is that there's going to be less water flowing in because of climate change and there are going to be more reparations. We need to acknowledge that the system is overcommitted and there needs to be less water taken from the river. This is the basis of the need for buybacks.

I call upon Victoria to come to their senses. This bill is going to allow for buybacks within Victoria now, so even if the Victorian government don't support them, if there are people wanting to sell water in Victoria, the Commonwealth will be able to buy it for the benefit of the river. What it means is that Victoria won't get any benefits of this legislation. They won't be able to get funding for a whole range of projects that might also be benefitting the river. I'm hoping that after this legislation has been pushed through the Victorian government will realise the benefits of also signing up to this legislation, and that they recognise the value of the legislation and of restoring our rivers to Victorian communities.

There have been a lot of stories that were collected by the Murray-Darling Conservation Alliance, as part of the Stand by your River campaign—stories from First Nations leaders, fishers, farmers and community members from across the basin. Lots of them come from Victoria, not surprisingly. Two weeks ago, a number of these groups came to Canberra to present the Stand by your River petition, which had more than 10,000 signatures. I want to read out two testimonies from Victorians who were listed as part of this campaign. One is from Linley and Glenn, who say:

We live close to the Kaiela (also known as the Goulburn River). Here, the river flows through Kaieltheban Clan homeland, on the Yorta Yorta Nation country. Our concern is for the health of the whole river system, and the importance of listening to Traditional Owners as we move—hopefully—to a greater sharing of this natural life-giving resource.

Another Victorian story is from Irene, who says:

The Murray Darling Basin holds an artery of Australia's heart. Degrading our river system by Restricting flows and pollution denies life to the natural systems that support our life. In the face of climate change we should be doing everything to enhance natural systems not undermine them.

I know from the campaigns that have been run across Victoria, particularly the ones that have been coordinated by Environment Victoria, that there are many thousands of Victorians who are going to be celebrating this legislation going through the parliament today. They will continue to question why the Victorian government is so backwards in protecting the river environments, and why they are so backwards and so reluctant to accept the basic premise of the need to allow water to be bought back so it can benefit the environment.

The other issue about Victoria that I want to raise is that their whole justification for being against water buybacks has been shown not to be based on good science. The Murray-Darling Basin Authority released a damning report recently that highlighted the Labor government's reliance on subpar research to justify their policy position on water recovery. This report, produced by the University of Adelaide's School of Economics and Public Policy, showed that successive governments have leaned on studies by expensive consultants which largely failed to meet basic research standards. This study detailed a lack of peer review, small control groups and inconsistent mathematical modelling across various studies which have helped inform Labor's stubborn opposition to water purchases. Our Greens MPs in the state parliament, on hearing of this research, said:

This report raises serious questions about the integrity of water policy in Victoria. It's distressing to hear the Labor Government's position on water purchases is based on unreliable research and not based on science.

I'm hoping that, with the good news that we've got today, we will have a change of heart in Victoria as well. I'm also hopeful about the expensive engineering projects the Victorian government have been relying upon to not support water buybacks. I'm heartened by the fact that there will now be an audit of all of these projects so that we can see which will actually benefit the environment and which won't. There are quite a few of these expensive engineering projects that we will see the end of after this audit. I'm very pleased that this legislation also gives the Commonwealth the ability to end the projects which are inappropriate. It may be that some of the projects in Victoria will help with water efficiency.

I'm very hopeful that after a serious independent audit, some of those projects will go ahead, and the Victorian government will change its mind and realise that by signing up for this plan, they will benefit from some money potentially going into those projects. Congratulations again to Senator Hanson-Young and to the Labor Party for giving us a good news story. So much of the news in this place, so much of what we are doing, leads you to be despairing. Working together like this to get good outcomes gives me hope. It gives me hope that, when we look objectively and sensibly at the environmental needs of our planet, we can work together and get good outcomes. I'm really pleased to be speaking in support of this bill today.