Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Riverina for her question and her great interest in the issues surrounding water security and the sustainability of regional economies in those areas that rely on water security. We certainly understand that water security, particularly throughout the Murray-Darling Basin, underpins regional development prospects in all regional communities.

The member for Riverina asked about our $10 billion national water plan. It needs to be said at the outset that it would not be possible for our government to be putting this proposal forward and to be encouraging the states to commit with the Commonwealth to this investment and this nation-building scheme if it had not been for the good economic management of the economy over the last 11 years that has put us in a position where we can afford to invest this money. Eleven years ago the nation would never have been able to afford to invest this amount of money in what is a critical national issue. Now we have the Labor Party wanting to put their hand up and say, ‘Me, too’ after opposing every inch of the way the hard work that the nation has put in to achieve this economic outcome so that we can afford these investments in much needed infrastructure.

We have the Labor spokesmen going out and saying, ‘We’ll do this and we’ll do that.’ We had the member for Grayndler promising to free up money for state projects. We know that that is what this Labor Party is all about: being beholden to state governments. We also know that they want to punish farmers in regional communities for the mistakes of state governments in the overallocation of water rights. We will not punish farmers or regional communities for the mistakes that state governments have made, and we make no apology for that. That is why we put this package together: so that we can sensibly approach an issue that we need to address.

Where it exists, overallocation will be addressed firstly through efficiency savings in the system. That is why we have indicated that we are prepared to invest $6 billion into efficiency savings to address that overallocation. Secondly, as a last resort we are prepared to purchase water rights in the marketplace from willing sellers. But we want to generate the efficiency savings first because we believe that there is a significant amount of water that can be saved. We will engage all stakeholders so that they can provide us with advice and guidance from top to bottom on this issue at every step of the way. We want to engage in a genuine partnership with those regional communities to enhance and ensure the prosperity of those regional communities, particularly those in the Murray-Darling Basin area.

Labor’s alternative, and the member for Grayndler outlined this in a speech yesterday, is to blame the farmers for overallocation and not to put the finger on the state governments that made the overallocation. He is out there saying that he is going to free up money and give it to the state governments. Where is he going to get the money from? He is going to get the money from the good management of this government that he opposed every inch of the way. He did not want us to make the savings—he did not want us to improve the economic circumstances in Australia—but now that it has been done he wants to grab the money and go and spend it. The member for Grayndler should get out into the countryside and talk to a few of the producers around the place. The member for Grayndler says that the price of water should be higher—but he will not say how high—and he wants to tell farmers what crops they should be growing.

See this speech in context