Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the Murray-Darling Basin and some amazing students that I got to spend some time with the week before last. The Murray-Darling Basin is one of Australia's most important river systems. It continues to face critical threats to its health, following nine long years of neglect by the previous government. In my home state of South Australia, the Murray River supplies vital water for agriculture and for domestic use. It sustains ecosystems and unique wildlife and plant life that populate the Murray-Darling. It is a critical part of our country, and we need to ensure that its health is secured into the future.

So I was quite delighted to meet with a bunch of PhD students from the Fenner school at the ANU. They are a range of really, really impressive young people who have fixed on concepts and ideas that they believe will improve the Murray-Darling Basin. They have some excellent projects, which they talked me through, including things like climate adaptation in the Coorong; freshwater conservation; water security in small towns in New South Wales; horizon scanning to predict long-term futures; ecological forecasts, and a range of other elements that I don't have time to go into in just two minutes. But I am emboldened by having met with them and heard what they're doing, when we think about what we can and we must do for the Murray-Darling Basin into the future, now that we have a government that cares. (Time expired)