Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in opposition to this bill, and for good reason. One of the main reasons is that it was not what the government told the people of Australia when they were in opposition. What did they say when they were in opposition? In Our plan: real solutions for all Australians they talked about 'the direction, values and policy priorities of the next coalition government'. They have broken every single commitment in this document. It says a lot about their values. They do not judge these commitments as important at all; they throw them out the window like confetti. There is only one dot-point on improving water security and better water management: 'We will deliver on the 10-point plan for the Murray-Darling announced by the Howard government. We will restore the Murray-Darling to health' et cetera.

This bill abolishes the National Water Commission, which was set up by the Howard government. Imagine if they had gone to the last election—

Mr Briggs interjecting—

The member for Mayo knows all about breaking commitments to South Australia—on cars, submarines and many other things. If they had gone to the people of South Australia at the last election and said they were going to get rid of the National Water Commission—a $20 million save—imagine the response from South Australia! The reason they did not put that in Real Solutions is that they knew that would lose some votes. They knew that their broken promises, their broken commitments, their broken word would lose them votes. The National Water Commission looks into the health of the Murray-Darling Basin—oversees it all, provides expertise, provides updates, provides information to the public and to government. Everybody knows that the reason for getting rid of it and giving it to the Productivity Commission is about not just a $20 million saving, but getting the policeman off the beat so that they can go back to 'business as usual'. And we know what 'business as usual' is. In 1943, my Labor predecessor Sid McHugh asked Menzies the exact same question about the usage of water in the Murray-Darling Basin. So this has been an issue for—

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