Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Water Amendment (Long-term Average Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment) Bill 2012 is an incredibly important bill. This is not the first time that I have raised in this House the importance of the Murray-Darling Basin. Indeed, I have spoken on numerous occasions about how important it is that we restore this river system to health. Mr Deputy Speaker Georganas, you would understand that our state, South Australia, relies on this system for its drinking water; but, not only that, it is the lifeblood of our nation. As I have said before, if we do not act now to restore this river to health it will be not only the environment that loses; if the river dies, the agriculture along it will die. This is what is sometimes lost in this debate. We can have a debate about agriculture versus the environment, but the truth of the matter is that, if we do not restore this river, there will be nothing. An unhealthy river is no good to irrigators and it is no good to the environment. So it is very important.

I have been taking a very active interest in this. Indeed, on behalf of my constituents I have put in my own submission to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority consultations, I have moved private member's motions in this House and I have also spoken numerous times on this very, very important issue. If we do not do something, so many of the important wetlands and floodplains will die. The mouth of the river needs to be kept open. We need to ensure salinity does not continue to have a destructive impact in the basin, getting worse and worse as you go up the system.

In South Australia we have seen the impact that salinity has had not just on the environment—although it has had a devastating impact on the environment in the Lower Lakes region—but also on farming, ensuring that none of the water, because of the salinity, is able to be used at all for irrigation. It is not of a quality that is great enough. That is why I put in a submission to the Murray-Darling authority actually commenting on the level of water which they had planned to return to the Murray, which was the 2,750 gigalitres. I did say in my submission that I believed that was an inadequate amount to restore the basin to health and that we needed to make sure we were returning enough water to restore the basin to health.

We have heard those on the other side today—in fact, in question time, the member for Murray in her personal explanation said this—say that they do not believe any more water should be returned to the basin, which I think is a very concerning statement from those on the other side. I do not know whether that is flagging the intention of the whole coalition. I know that that would be—I assume—very disturbing for the constituents of South Australia that I represent. But certainly it would be concerning for members on the other side of the House that are from South Australia. The message is loud and clear: we need to do something and the time is now. No longer can we put this in the too-hard basket.

That is why I was very pleased that the Prime Minister and the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities did make an important announcement on Friday just last week, meeting my call for an increased amount of water to be returned to the basin. I was very pleased that the Prime Minister and the minister for water did announce that it would be the government's commitment, in addition to the 2,750 gigalitres returned through the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, to return an extra 450 gigalitres of water to achieve greater environmental outcomes to the basin through water recovery projects that minimise the impact on communities.

This important injection of water will have great results. It is important to note that this is additional environmental water and—as the Prime Minister and the minister for water did mention in question time today—water which will be returned by infrastructure investment. Importantly, it will be returned through an investment of $1.77 billion over 10 years from 2014 to relax key operating constraints that will allow for this additional environmental water to be obtained. This is an important point to note: through investing in infrastructure, we can deliver more water back into the system to ensure that there is water delivering key environmental outcomes, which include ensuring we keep the mouth of the Murray-Darling system open down at the low end, down at the bottom end. I very much welcomed this announcement on Friday. Indeed, I know it is something that the South Australian members on this side of the House, and indeed members from South Australia on the other side of the House, believe in very strongly.

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