Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister. The minister will recall the Senate inquiries—initiated and chaired, I might say, by the Democrats—on urban water management in 2002, rural water resource usage in 2004 and living with salinity, in March this year. Why has the government not responded to any of these reports so far? Does the government now acknowledge that the comprehensive recommendations from these three inquiries should have been acted upon in light of the water shortage crises that are now facing cities and rural communities throughout Australia?

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will get an answer for Senator Allison as to why the response to those Senate reports has not yet been forthcoming. I assure Senator Allison and the Senate that the government’s credentials on this subject are well established. I hope she would acknowledge that we have taken the issue of Australia’s water management very seriously. The federal government is working closely with the states. We believe that COAG and cooperative federalism are required to ensure that the mistakes in the past that have been committed by state governments—of both persuasions and without adequate knowledge of the consequences of their actions—are rectified.

We have a very serious water management issue. That is why we have appointed a parliamentary secretary for water and set up a special office of water resources and a $2 billion water fund. We are working very closely with states and local communities to ensure that Australia manages its water much better. We are all very conscious of the crisis. It is an unfortunate fact of political life that there will be a variety of grandstanding on this issue. For my part and the government’s part, an absence of politics but proof of concrete action and commitment is what is required. We are all in this together. There is lots of talk about rice and cotton farmers and things like that. Whatever you might say about them, those communities were established on the basis of water licences issued by state governments. Whole communities are now depending on those industries.

Changing the way we manage water is going to be complex and difficult. It will be difficult for rural communities, which do, as Senator Allison would know, consume some 75 per cent of the water used in this country. There is no ‘just turning off the tap’ for those communities. It has to be managed extremely carefully and sensitively. As someone who lives at the end of the River Murray in a city which is dependent for most of its water on the River Murray, I know that we South Australians on both sides of the chamber are very conscious of the importance of this issue. I will seek to ensure we get an answer to Senator Allison’s request with respect to Senate reports as soon as possible.

Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I have a supplementary question. Minister, I acknowledge that it is complex and that rural water use represents 75 per cent of the total water used in this country. However, how much has been spent on drought relief and how much on fixing the 30 per cent—at least—loss of agricultural water from seepage and evaporation, for instance? For how long has your government been told that piping irrigation water and better irrigation techniques are necessary? Does it not make more sense to spend money on saving water for the farmers now facing yet another disastrous drought year?

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am not sure that Senator Allison really means to suggest that we should cut back on drought assistance to farmers in order to offset it against water savings measures. That is not how we approach policy. We approach policy on the basis of a need in rural communities, much of which is dryland farming where there is no irrigation because it has not rained, and these people are in desperate need of assistance. We approach that issue on its merits and, as Senator Allison would know, we have provided some $2 billion over the last five years to assist those farmers.

Water management is a separate issue. We are putting in enormous sums of money. We committed an additional $500 million in the recent budget to bring our total funding to the Murray-Darling Basin to $2 billion since we came to government. We have a range of significant programs to assist in the very issues which Senator Allison talked about, but we deal with those on their merits—separate and apart from the very significant support which we feel obliged and motivated to provide for drought-stricken farmers.