Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill may now be read a second time.

I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill.

Leave granted.

I table an explanatory memorandum and seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated into Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

I rise today to speak in favour of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission of Inquiry Bill 2019. This summer we have seen before our eyes what scientists, ecologists and river communities have been warning us about for years: an ecosystem in collapse.

Unprecedented mass fish deaths in Menindee have crystallised the crisis unfolding in the nation's most important river system. The Productivity Commission has raised concerns about the capacity of the current management and governance arrangements.

Meanwhile, the South Australian Royal Commission slammed the Plan, the Authority, and management by the Basin States. Commissioner Bret Walker found instances of corruption and maladministration. He raised questions about the validity of the Environmentally Sustainable Level of Take, and the very lawfulness of the Plan itself.

Scientists have been telling us that the 2750GL water recovery target is inadequate. The South Australian Royal Commission found a target that appropriately considered the environment would be somewhere between 3980GL and 6980GL. Throughout the Basin it is clear there is not enough water.

We have seen cases of fraud, donation scandals and corruption. If we are to save the Murray-Darling Basin, what we need are not prayers but answers and a plan of action. We know there is not enough water in the river. So where is the water? Why is so much less water making it downstream? How do we account for the fish deaths, and for the ill-health of the Coorong? Why has a water management plan, designed to deal with drought, failed at the first hurdle? Why hasn't Queensland had questions to answer? How did cotton have a bumper crop last year? Why isn't anyone talking about floodplain harvesting? These questions, and many others, must be answered.

While the South Australian Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission made comprehensive findings, key individuals and agencies were prevented from giving evidence at the Commission. Thus far its findings have been side-stepped by those who need to heed them if the river is to survive.

In 2017, then Minister, Barnaby Joyce bragged to irrigators that he had taken water away from the environment. In NSW, Minister for Regional Water, Niall Blair gave himself the right to retrospectively approve illegal floodplain works in the Barwon-Darling, even if they do not comply with the plan. Meanwhile, Ernst & Young have found "unique fraud risks" in an analysis of the $3.2 billion fund set aside to purchase environmental water, meaning that money could be paid without any water ever being recovered.

It is not just individual ministers. In 2018, the Liberal National Government, with the support of Labor, passed a 70GL cut in the water recovery target for the Northern Basin. In the Southern Basin, the decision to pay for 'water efficiency measures' instead of buying back 605GL also had bipartisan support. This leaves less and less water for the environment. Now we have a million dead fish.

It is clear that the power and greed of corporate irrigators, the politicians who are happy to serve their interests, coupled with a plan that leaves too much to chance, handshakes, winks and nods have combined to deliver less and less water to a river system already under strain. We are seeing the river system dying before our eyes for the sake of corporate greed and political power.

It is not impossible to save the Murray-Darling. It is not impossible to manage healthy, thriving river systems in ways that benefit the environment, communities, and businesses. But to get there we need answers, those responsible need to be held to account, and we need to overhaul our broken plan. It is time to take a look under the hood of corporate cotton, corruption, and climate change.

This Commission of Inquiry will ensure that no stone is left unturned. It will examine misconduct, the implementation of the plan and any adverse effects it has on the environment, agriculture and river communities, the allocation of funds and the real impact these funds have had or not had on environmental watering, and the impact of climate change on Basin water resources.

If we are to understand what has happened to our precious rivers and find solutions, we need to get to the bottom of what has gone on and look for solutions.

I urge you to support this Bill; the survival of our nation's most important river system hangs in the balance.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.