Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Regional Australia I wish to make a statement concerning the committee’s inquiry into the impact of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in Regional Australia. On 28 October the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government, the Hon. Simon Crean, determined that an inquiry of the newly formed regional Australia committee would look into various aspects of the proposed plan in relation to the Murray-Darling catchment. As most members, if not all, would be aware, this is a very important food producing asset that we have in the eastern part of Australia. It intersects four states and has been part of various discussions for decades now in terms of some of the issues that revolve around the passage of the Murray and the Darling systems through four states and then out into the ocean at the Murray mouth. There have been a number of discussions over many years trying to wrestle with the various issues—usage issues, allocation issues and river health and environmental issues.

I thank the members who are going to have their time taken up in being on the committee, some of whom are in the chamber at the moment—and the deputy chair, the member for Braddon, will be speaking shortly. I thank those committee members for their involvement. I think they are adopting the correct mindset in relation to this issue. We have a unique opportunity, given the nature of this hung parliament, to actually design a solution. The multiparty committee—comprising Labor, Liberal, National and Independent members—will be able to look at all areas including socioeconomic issues, the impacts on communities and the various problems within specific valleys. Given the urgency of this particular issue, many members will give up time in January to travel throughout the system not only to conduct hearings but also to look at some of the very important aspects of the Murray-Darling system.

We believe that there are solutions out there that need to be looked at and, given the concerns that have been expressed by the community about the Murray-Darling Basin Authority guide, we are confident that, given the nature of the committee, many of the concerns can be placated. The committee looks forward to resolving what is a longstanding issue, one that both sides of parliament have wrestled with over many years. We now have a unique opportunity. The executive arm of government does not have total control in this particular parliament, and the members of this committee, most of whose electorates lie within the catchment itself, have a real opportunity to come together and design a plan that can be proposed at the end of the committee hearings. Hopefully that plan can be taken on board by the executive, by the minister for regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government, and by the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.

The secretariat has called for submissions in relation to this, and I would encourage people to be involved. I know a lot of the people who have been to meetings feel as though there is a foregone conclusion in relation to the various numbers that are outlined in the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s guide. However, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority in a sense has no real authority. It is the parliament that has the authority. As I have said, the committee will be made up of members from across the spectrum in the parliament, and both the minister for regional Australia and the minister for the environment, as well as the Prime Minister, have said to me that they are keen to see this issue resolved. I think that it is this parliament that may be able to do it.

Committee members will travel throughout the basin area during January, hearings will be held between February and April and a report should come down in either April or May, although that deadline is extendable if necessary. Many people from across the basin have contacted me—and, I believe, other members of the committee—putting forward various suggestions to enhance the environmental health of the Murray-Darling system as well as for mitigating the socioeconomic effects of the guide’s proposed cutbacks on certain communities. A lot of the work of the committee will be to look at those impacts on communities.

The recommendations currently in place are only a guide. They are not even a draft. They are definitely not a plan and they are not legislation but, if those current recommendations were to be put in place, we need to ask what impacts they would have on those communities. Where those impacts have been shown, we really need to drill down to find out whether there are other solutions to the problem—for example, through water use efficiency or evaporative savings. There are a whole range of other issues out there, many of which are within specific valleys. A specific issue that needs to be addressed is the finding of solutions to problems of river health within specific valleys given the water reductions that have been advised.

Given that we are short on time I will leave my statement there and ask the deputy chair to say a few words. To all those out there who may be listening to this statement, including the press, I would urge them to consider that this is probably one of the biggest issues this parliament will deal with—and it has wrestled with the problem for many decades. But I would ask people to actually look at the positive sides of this: that we should look forward to resolving the issue of socioeconomic impacts on those people—irrigators as well as other people impacted by the current health of the river system—who have invested heavily in their communities. I believe there is a solution there and I think we should take this opportunity, given the nature of this particular parliament, to work constructively to deliver a solution to the parliament and the various ministers so that this issue can be put to bed once and for all.

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