Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

It took a drought and the imminent collapse of a national river system to force us to put aside our parochial state interests to create the Murray-Darling Basin Plan—a national plan; a national agreement. My parliamentary colleague Senator Nick Xenophon—in particular, but also others—is right, when he says that if there is any evidence of a state trying to sabotage this intergovernmental agreement and we fail to act decisively then it is an attack on what our federation stands for.

Back in November last year, when there was a suggestion of cuts to the environmental flows, there was such community anger that the Nick Xenophon Team had to stand up for downstream communities. We successfully advocated for measures that elevated the Basin Plan to the level of the Prime Minister and first ministers at COAG and then put the plan through the forensic scrutiny of Senate estimates. This was designed to provide additional transparency to ensure the Basin Plan would be delivered as promised. Although this was a step in the right direction, it is now clear that the level of transparency achieved through Senate estimates is simply not enough. We are convinced that the only way that the outcomes of the Basin Plan can be ensured is for the state and federal governments to open the books—the accounting and the modelling—for all to see. Only then will the Australian public, and particularly the communities along the river, have confidence in their governments that the Murray-Darling Basin Plan will be truly delivered on time and in full.

The National Water Commission was originally given the mandate of being an independent auditor of Murray-Darling Basin water accounting and standards. The function of the commission was diminished and folded into the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources. These water accounting and standard auditing functions, as they relate to the Basin Plan must once again be placed in the hands of an independent agency that sits outside of the control of the department and, indeed, the federal minister. Such independence must be accompanied by annual audits of expenditure of public funds and annual independent reviews of the Basin Plan progress.

But lastly, and critically, nothing less than a judicial inquiry with all the powers of a royal commission is needed to resolve the allegations of widespread rorting of water entitlements, water meter tampering, collusion of public servants, obstruction of water enforcement investigations, and alleged secret deals between government and large irrigators. This is theft. These are allegations that a billion litres of water that belongs to our nation, paid for by taxpayers, has been stolen. The communities in my own electorate at the very end of the river Murray feel angry and betrayed. Communities along the entire length of the River Murray have the right to ask: what is happening to our water? And they deserve an honest response. They have yet to receive that response. We need genuine transparency and accountability, so that if anyone is stealing from the Basin Plan, we can have the confidence they will be properly addressed. South Australian state Liberal parties are outraged and support the call for a full judicial inquiry. However, the silence from the South Australian federal Liberal colleagues of theirs has been deafening.

We have just heard from the member for Barker—the other South Australian in this chamber that should be representing local communities along the River Murray in South Australia—that he is appalled by the allegations and yet he does not support a judicial inquiry. How can that be? Again today, the member for Barker talked about long-nosed fur seals in the Coorong, which he did yesterday—interrupting me in my speech about the Coorong—but he refuses to say that he believes this should go to an inquiry with royal commission powers. How must South Australians at Waikerie, at Loxton, in the Coorong, at Mannum and at Murray Bridge feel to hear that their federal member will not support a judicial review? They must feel abandoned by their federal member and by their federal government. The people from Mayo and from the neighbouring electorate of Barker and elsewhere stop me in the streets and say, 'Please fight for the river. Do not give up on a judicial inquiry. Do not give up on us.' And we won't, because water rights in the river Murray can be traded but the river itself belongs to all Australians.

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