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

you are quite wrong there—always take a lot longer than one imagines and the time frame invariably is much extended. As I said, there are water projects which we committed funds to some years ago where the funds have not yet been drawn down. I am not suggesting that states have been negligent or slow or that councils have been negligent or slow, but these projects do take time.

Dealing with the Living Murray issue, the water through efficiencies tender, all the honourable member did was read back to me exactly what I had said, which was that we would not buy more than 200GL and we certainly did not have more than $200 million to spend, but it was never anticipated, we never suggested, that we would be buying 200GL or indeed spending $200 million. I was very careful to keep expectations very low. I genuinely did not know how much water would be available. Given the nature of the tender—it was a very valuable experiment; we learned a great deal from it—I did not know how much water would be available from that tender at an acceptable price.

Turning to the Tweed, it amazes me the way in which the Labor Party seem determined to continue the blunder of Kevin Rudd and Wayne Goss and continue to deny the people of south-east Queensland the chance for a sustainable water future. It was Wayne Goss, aided and abetted by Kevin Rudd, who decided not to build the Wolffdene dam.

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