Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

I go to the national water plan. The Minister for the Environment and Water Resources will recall the Prime Minister’s speech on 25 January which warned about the danger of not taking decisive action on the water crisis. The appropriations being debated in the parliament today indicate that just $53 million will be spent in the coming financial year, 2007-08, and, of that, just $15 million will be spent on addressing overallocation. Why, if it is such a priority for the government, is the $10 billion announcement back-ended in terms of funding? If this were a priority, wouldn’t you expect it to be front-end loaded in terms of the spending?

Why is it that the government has refused to release documents that have been requested under freedom of information legislation by Channel 7 and the West Australian relating to the preparation of the 25 January announcement? Is it the case that the government has used the excuse of concern about the states? Given that it is a fact that the states were not consulted prior to the 25 January announcement, the release of these documents, which the state leaders have indicated they would approve being released, could not possibly cause damage to federal-state relations. Finally, can the minister confirm that the very brief costings table that was published when the Prime Minister addressed the National Press Club on 25 January was one of the documents to which access was refused under the FOI request?

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