Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Unfortunately, Senator Hanson-Young appears not to understand how the Water Act actually works. Next year, there is not a review of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, but next year we will see the sustainable diversion limit adjustment mechanism come into play, and the adjustment mechanism is well defined in the Water Act. It has specific provisions for how many offsets could be provided and how much additional water could be provided. Under the act, that adjustment mechanism has to be run in consultation with all of the states, so you actually have to have the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council on this—the state ministers working in tandem with the Commonwealth. So, if Senator Hanson-Young thinks that any single minister, no matter what their political persuasion, can make a difference to that, she is sorely mistaken, because that is stipulated in the terms of the act, very clearly, and I have supreme confidence, as I have said before, that the Basin Plan will be delivered in full and on time by this government.