Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The minister says he did not tell them to do that. The minister has asked, in parallel to the authority doing this report, that a new parliamentary committee to be headed up by Mr Windsor to do the socioeconomic impact assessment which the Murray-Darling Basin Authority failed to do. But the lucky committee has until April to produce that report. If the minister knew anything about regional Australia, he would know that from now until March or April is the peak period for people in the basin for harvesting, managing their crops, employing people, picking, packing and pruning—not to mention that there is also Christmas. How are these communities going to respond to another go at the economic impact assessment of the government taking away up to 45 per cent of their production capacity by the removal of their water? This is such a cynical exercise. We had hoped that this government had learned from the numbers of rural and regional communities that rejected them at the last election. They have not. (Time expired)

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