Annette Hurley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Wong. Can the minister advise the Senate of scientific advice on the impact of climate change on the Murray-Darling Basin? Can the minister also outline the government’s approach to responding to this challenge, particularly in the lower Murray, and are there any alternative views?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Hurley for the question and for her interest in these water and climate change matters. Unlike those opposite, we on this side recognise the challenge that is climate change. Unlike those opposite, we are not climate change sceptics. It has been interesting to watch in the last couple of months, certainly over the break, the Leader of the Opposition attempting to persuade Australians that, contrary to all the evidence, he is not a climate change sceptic. So it was with great surprise that a number of us watched Dr Nelson on Lateline last night denying that climate change was having an effect on rainfall in this country. Not only did he deny that there is a link between climate change and the state of the Murray-Darling; he also said he knew better than the scientists of the CSIRO. He seems to have forgotten the fact that scientists have long been warning of the risks to the Murray-Darling Basin resulting from climate change. For example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have assessed that flows through the basin are likely to fall by up to 25 per cent by 2050 and we know from the sustainable yield study the CSIRO have been undertaking that in some of the catchments in the southern basin we have seen inflows in the last 10 years that are around the worst-case projections for 2030.

The Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport has released my department’s submission to the current inquiry into the Coorong and the lower lakes. That submission outlines the serious situation in the lower lakes and it outlines the short-term options for managing this situation that have been provided to the government. I welcome the committee’s decision to release this document. What it also demonstrates is that all of us have to face the reality of climate change. The submission puts the onus on the opposition to stop playing the same political games that got the River Murray and the lower lakes into this mess in the first place.

Those opposite now have the facts and now they must take responsibility. And they should come into this chamber and tell us which of the options put before government they would take were they in government. I want to make this point to the opposition: after they spent 12 years in government doing nothing, what they are doing now is being so cynical as to walk both sides of the street when it comes to the River Murray. When downstream in South Australia the opposition give one message, upstream they give another. Upstream, in Victoria, they tell their constituents that the lakes cannot be saved and the government should stop purchasing water entitlements. Then, in South Australia, Senator Birmingham and Mr Pyne say that the government should purchase more. They are walking both sides of the street.

The document that has been provided to the Senate demonstrates that there is no room for this kind of political opportunism. There are no easy options here; there are only hard choices. Those opposite have demonstrated a complete lack of understanding and a complete lack of responsibility when it comes to making hard choices on the Murray-Darling Basin. So what does the document show? It shows that at the date of the figures provided there were around 3,949 gigalitres in storage and that 4,292 gigalitres have been committed. (Time expired)

Annette Hurley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister further outline the government’s response to these conditions in the lower Murray?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I have previously indicated, our position is very clear on this. We understand the situation in the Murray-Darling Basin. We understand that, if it does not rain, something has to give. Let me be absolutely clear about what the government’s priority is—our priority is securing Adelaide’s water supply and the water supply of the towns and cities that rely on the river. And we will not be part of an approach that threatens the critical human needs of Adelaide. So the question to the opposition is: can it say the same? Will Senator Fifield say that his first priority in the Murray-Darling Basin is the drinking water of Mildura? Will Senator Birmingham say that his first priority is the critical human needs of Adelaide? Will Senator Nash say that her first priority is the critical human needs of Wagga? The reality is that— (Time expired)