Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

Can I just put on the record that I support the delivery of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in full, so any suggestion by those opposite that that's not the case is vagrantly trying to bill me incorrectly. So I just want to be very, very clear I support the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in full.

But I also support the Murray-Darling Basin Plan delivered under the terms and conditions that were agreed to in this place back when we had bipartisan support for the Murray-Darling Basin Plan implementation—not the political stitch that's being caused by this particular bill that we are talking to here. For the minister to stand up—clearly she's been given talking points by someone else—and suggest that somehow we are standing in the way of the delivery here is just completely ridiculous. This has been stuffed through this place at a rate of knots. It was guillotined without us having any opportunity to be able to do broader consultation. I would just like to say that: it doesn't matter how many times you say something that is factually incorrect, it doesn't make it correct.

The biggest concern that we have, and Senator Davey put this on the record very articulately during the actual bill itself and again in her contribution to this motion by Senator Roberts, is that there has been no real consultation. You cannot possibly look Australians in the face and say you've consulted about something when you have blatantly refused to look at the people and tell the people to their face that they are going to be majorly and negatively impacted by the decisions that are contained in this bill.

It was the absolute height of contempt when we sought in this place to have the water bill referred to committee, so that the committee was able to go and consult, to only hold hearings in Canberra! If ever there was a Canberra focused, Canberra-centric government it's got to be this one here. The reality is that there isn't a lot of impact on the Murray-Darling Basin here in Canberra, with the exception that it relies on the system for its water, but it doesn't rely on the system to grow food and it doesn't rely on the system to grow fibre. So I would say that only holding hearings in Canberra has got to be one of the most contemptuous things I have ever seen, because we know that river communities are really upset. They are worried about the impact of the changes that are contained in this bill. I think the government should have the guts to turn up and face those communities and hear what their concerns are directly from them.

I commend the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee, headed up by Senator Canavan, who took their committee out—actually, it might have been the—