Peter McGauran (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker; I relish the opportunity to answer this question, and I thank the honourable member. I would suggest that the extract that the honourable member has presented to the House is incomplete or, at worst, inaccurate. The Minister for the Environment and Water Resources made it very clear that overallocation funding is largely and as entirely as possible for structural adjustment. That aspect of the package starts and finishes with assisting irrigators, whether it is with relocation or the like.

There is an element, of course, in regard to the purchase of water allocations, but it will be done on the basis of structural adjustment. It allows me to say that it may very well be with regard to the configuration of irrigation systems. You might retire non-viable areas and the like with the support of farmers. And irrigators have welcomed this. The honourable member is trying to make a political point—unsuccessfully—when irrigators themselves have expressed support for the package. After all, the implications for irrigators are overwhelmingly positive, and that is how they have seen it. The cornerstone of the plan is a commitment of $6 billion to modernise irrigation infrastructure off farms, $3 billion on farms—

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