Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources) Share this | Hansard source

I call on the member for Kingsford Smith to produce the Labor Party policy document which says the Commonwealth government should take charge of the Murray-Darling Basin. It will be interesting to see whether that is produced.

That plan will revolutionise the management of water in a region which uses most of our water. Most of the water that is consumed in Australia is used in the Murray-Darling Basin. Why? Because that is where 80 per cent of our irrigated agriculture can be found, and irrigated agriculture uses about 70 per cent of all the water that is consumed. That plan will transform the security of irrigators and the security of communities, and it will restore the sustainable balance and sustainable allocations between agriculture on the one hand and the environment on the other. Things that people have been saying must be done but which were frustrated by an antiquated and inappropriate governance structure can now be resolved, and they will be resolved in this climate because of the leadership that the Prime Minister has shown. This is leadership from the coalition. The Labor Party never proposed this. They never canvassed this, and indeed we do not know whether all the Labor Party premiers will yet support it. But it is the answer to the biggest environmental challenge in Australia: the management of water. It is the one that affects most people and most communities. It is the answer to that challenge in our largest area of rivers and groundwater systems, where over three million people depend on the water from that system and about 40 per cent of our agricultural produce is delivered. (Time expired)

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