Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her questions. There are a number of detailed aspects to those questions. Some of that information, if the opposition had seen fit to participate in the estimates process earlier, would have been gained for them, but I am happy to take some of those questions on notice. I will be providing some answers for the member for Greenway to questions that she raised in our first session.

On the broader question of the government’s commitment to ensure that the sums that are being invested in Water for the Future are effectively spent and assist both the communities in the basin and the environment to withstand the rigours of an extremely difficult and tough drought, I make the following points. The first is that under the previous government the policy on getting water back into the environment, and in fact on investing in water at all, was a policy which was effectively dreamt up at the last minute and delivered to us on the back of an envelope. It did not even go through the Treasurer. It was also a policy, as I recall, on which the former Treasurer, the member for Higgins, made the observation, when the question was put to him about urban water—and it is certainly the case that, under our water policy proposals more generally, we have a commitment to urban water issues—that urban water was not on the agenda of the Commonwealth. Water is now on the agenda of the Commonwealth, specifically with a $12.9 billion investment in Water for the Future.

I have to say to the member opposite that this is a significant investment on a scale that, again, we have not seen previously. We are very mindful of the necessity for water purchases to happen with willing sellers at a fair market price. Additionally, there is an investment of some $5.8 billion for sustainable rural use and infrastructure, which includes improving efficiency. The member for Murray asked me whether on-farm water efficiencies would be a part of Water for the Future—they will. But here is the important point that has to be made: all that the opposition seems to be able to do with respect to this program is carp. All we hear from the opposition is carping. Frankly, what we face, particularly in the Murray-Darling Basin, is one of the most serious issues that we have ever faced in relation to the delivery of water to those communities who are so stretched and to an environment that is so stretched.

As a consequence of that, this government is fully committed to working in an effective and transparent fashion to enable stakeholder consultations to take place. As members know, the government has announced the appointment of a stakeholder consultative committee to provide an input into the review of the first round of the government’s water purchases in the basin. And it is fully committed to a set of clear principles that will enable the delivery of Commonwealth funds to ensure that we do get water back into the system and that we do it in a way that is fair, assists the communities in need and also provides the opportunity for some return of water to the environment.

When we come to water, one of the most difficult issues that we face concerns the fact that over a period of some decades that river system has got itself into a state of considerable ill-health. One of the things that we are extremely mindful of is the need to deliver this funding in a way which is appropriate and focused and, additionally, in a way which enables communities in the region to have confidence that the money that we are going to be spending will be well spent. I say to members opposite that is the intention of the government. It is clear from the policies that we have laid out and it is clear from the budget as delivered. If you are looking at a $12.9 billion investment in Water for Our Future, you must clearly acknowledge, given the amount that has been allocated for water purchases for sustainable use and also given the some $50 million already allocated to entitlements in February through a tender process that was fully subscribed, that the process is underway and working well.

See this speech in context