Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, and floods in certain areas.

Dr Leigh interjecting—

I wouldn't be flippant because this absolutely drove people to the edge, that they would have a government that was so completely out of touch and out of control that this issue had raised it head. At that point in time, it was role of the coalition to make sure that if they had a choice between Sarah Hanson-Young and the coalition that we played our part. So we went into partnership with the Labor Party to try to mitigate the effects that they would otherwise have caused. They were in partnership at that point in time. There was a Labor Green Independent government and that government was discussing at one point taking 6,000 gigs out of the system. It would have been an absolute nightmare. We went to work to make sure that we could bring about a better outcome.

That better outcome is here tonight with a cap on buybacks being limited to 1,500 gigalitres. We want to make sure we change the objective so that we focus on the proper triple bottom line, which is economic, social and environmental. What we had before was environment, daylight, daylight, forget about everybody and then make excuses for the social and economic outcomes. That is not what we wanted. We wanted to make sure we maintained the fabric of the towns—the fabric of the Dirranbandis, the St Georges, the Milduras, the Berrys, the Deniliquins and the Griffiths—because the people in these towns have a right to an economic future. Water is wealth. It is so fundamentally important that we get this right.

Tonight, I listened to the member for Hunter's contribution. I diligently waited for their policy going forward. The Australian people have a right to hear their policies. It is getting to that time in the electoral cycle when we should start hearing what the alternative policies of an aspirant government might be. But we are not getting that. The only thing we get from the Labor Party on agriculture are comments on us, because we are the only ones with policies.

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