Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I am unaware of the document to which the honourable gentleman refers. That is my honest answer. I think all members of this House would be united in their concern for the problems of the lower lakes. That is why I went there with Senator Wong, the Minister for Climate Change and Water, to have extensive discussions with those in the lower lakes about the particular challenges which they face. The government’s response to that has been on multiple levels. The first is this: for the first time in the Commonwealth’s history the buyback of water entitlements will commence. Those opposite talked about it all the time but did not spend a brass razoo on it. We have actually gone ahead with it and so far we have expended $50 million to purchase back entitlements, from memory, of some 37 gigalitres from the system. This is a small start but a necessary start. Subsequent to that, at the cabinet meeting in Adelaide, the government agreed to the release of further significant funds for the purchase of entitlements across the Murray-Darling system. That is one part of the challenge.

The other part of the challenge is what you do to improve the overall efficiency of the irrigation systems which currently draw water out of the Murray-Darling system. Apart from the fact that the water has been overallocated to hell over the last 100 years, these irrigation systems are often antiques in their own right. One of the figures we have been presented with suggests that there is something like a 30 per cent leakage from these irrigation systems as they pump water from the river system onto farm properties. That is obviously a practical area where we can work. That is why, again, in the first few meetings of the Council of Australian Governments, the government have allocated literally billions of dollars in programs to the states for the improvement of irrigation systems applying to farm properties across the system.

The third thing we have done is this: through the Council of Australian Governments, we have created a single Murray-Darling Basin authority. This has been talked about, again, for many months and for many years by those opposite but was never brought to fruition. At the first meetings of the Council of Australian Governments, we were able to bring about agreement on the establishment of this authority. Why is that important? For the first time in the history of the Murray-Darling Basin, we have therefore a single authority empowered to create a basin-wide plan for the proper use of the resource. In the past, that was Balkanised across the various states and territories of Australia and could no longer be sustained. These are practical steps forward.

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