Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make my contribution on the Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill 2023. The Albanese Labor government is working to ensure that we pass on Australia's environment, our land, sea and rivers, in better health to future generations. We're acting to protect, repair and manage nature so it grows stronger. That includes managing the water resources of our most productive region, the Murray-Darling Basin, to withstand longer and deeper droughts, more frequent floods and bushfires, and everything else that climate change will throw its way.

Irrigated agriculture in the basin produces about 15 per cent of Australia's food and fibre, contributing $8.6 billion to our economy every year. The basin is valued for its productivity and also its beauty, and its tourism is worth $11 billion. It's home to 2.3 million Australians, and more than three million people drink its water each and every day. It's home to 16 internationally significant wetlands, 35 endangered species and 120 different species of waterbird. The Water Act 2007, passed with bipartisan support, and the Murray-Darling Basin Plan 2012, adopted by the Australian government and all basin states, sets the amount of water that can be taken from the basin each year, leaving an environmentally sustainable level for the rivers, lakes, wetlands, plants and animals.

The Water Act and the Basin Plan set two water recovery targets: firstly a target of 2,750 gigalitres to bridge the gap to long-term average sustainable diversion limits; and secondly a target to recover 450 gigalitres of additional environmental water, a condition of South Australia's support for the plan. These works built on cooperative works to save rivers pushed to the brink by the millennium drought. It came from a period of environmental catastrophe, and it was designed to avoid another catastrophe from occurring. Basin governments, including the Australian government, signed onto the plan—a promise to the Australian people that we would work as one to protect what was valuable. The plan was developed to manage the basin as a whole connected system, including by setting sustainable water extraction limits.

Unfortunately, successive governments who took up the plan were unable to fully implement and achieve these targets. Those opposite spent the best part of a decade sabotaging the plan whenever they could. They blocked water recovery programs, tried to cut the final recovery targets and tie up water-saving projects by imposing impossible rules. In nine years, they delivered two gigalitres of the 450-gigalitre target. At that rate of progress, if you can call it that, the plan would be complete sometime around the year 4000. What might be news to those opposite is that we don't have that long and neither do the rivers.

Sir Angus Houston, Chair of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, has provided advice that unequivocally finds that full implementation of the Basin Plan will not be possible before 30 June 2024. Sir Angus's assessment was that, while much has been achieved in the decade of implementation, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority remains deeply concerned about key aspects of the Basin Plan's delivery. Although over 2,000 gigalitres has been recovered, the shortfall by the original 30 June 2024 deadline is expected to be over 700 gigalitres, which is 1½ times the size of Sydney Harbour. Implementation is now at a critical juncture, and it is important that governments act to overcome these challenges inhibiting the full delivery of the plan as soon as possible.

That's why the Albanese government ran a series of consultations this year. Consultations were undertaken with primary basin stakeholder groups, including irrigated agriculture, industry, local government, communities, environmentalists, First Nations and academics. Consultation was also undertaken with the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council with ministers from New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. At the February 2023 Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council meeting, ministers asked officials to develop a package, including accountability measures and work programs, to deliver the Basin Plan in full. Many aspects of the package, which were negotiated over several months by basin governments and announced on 22 August 2023, are reflected in this bill.

In addition, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water ran a five-week public consultation process from 29 May to 3 July 2023 seeking additional innovative ideas which would contribute to delivering the Basin Plan in full. They collected 131 submissions during the consultation process. The submissions captured a range of ideas and views, including support for extending the Basin Plan deadlines; allowing a wider range of options to achieve recovery targets; and improved use of science, data, information and technology. Key concerns raised in the submissions included the need for greater community involvement, including with First Nations people, in decision-making; program design; and addressing socioeconomic impacts of water recovery. These will be further explored through consultation with communities as the program rolls out. The package also includes funding for transitional assistance programs where water purchasing occurs.

An exposure draft of the water market reform measures in the bill was released for limited consultation with basin states and peak bodies of affected stakeholders, including irrigation infrastructure operators and water market intermediaries, in July 2023. The water market reforms are broadly supported by stakeholders, recognising the regulatory gap that currently exists in water markets. Further consultation will be undertaken to assess the regulatory impact on affected groups in the development of related regulations and legislative instruments. This will allow stakeholder feedback to appropriately be included.

We have heard calls for greater flexibility in achieving water recovery targets, calls to extend time frames and calls for investment in measures that deliver tangible environmental outcomes. These insights inform the agreement struck between basin jurisdictions last month to get the plan back on track. Basin water ministers worked hard and in good faith in recent months on the package of measures. We agreed on the need for more time, more money, more options and more accountability.

We know the next drought is just around the corner. The threats to the health of our iconic rivers and the people, plants and animals that rely on them are increasing. It is more critical than ever that our rivers are managed in the interests of nature as well as the interests of communities and industries. If we are to pass the Murray-Darling on to future generations in better health, we must finish what we started.

This bill makes sensible and practical amendments to the Water Act 2007 and consequential amendments to the Basin Plan 2012. The purpose of the Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill 2023 is to amend the Water Act and the Basin Plan to implement the Basin Plan in full, including recovering the 450 gigalitres of additional environmental water. We are also implementing the recommendations of the Water market reform: final roadmap report to restore transparency, integrity and confidence in water markets. This fulfils an election commitment to work with basin governments and stakeholders for the delivery of water commitments in the Murray-Darling Basin.

We are doing this by holding basin jurisdictions to their commitment to deliver environmental outcomes equivalent to those that would have been provided by the 605 gigalitres of water through supply and constraint easing measures. We have also insisted that the 450 gigalitres of additional water—which was the basis for South Australia agreeing to join the plan—be delivered. We have also identified and are rectifying the cause of the delays in the delivery of projects that ease constraints, consistent with the constraints management strategy. These measures will restore integrity and confidence in decision-making by working with the basin jurisdictions to ensure market surveillance and other integrity functions are conducted. We are also working towards requiring all water market participants in the Murray-Darling Basin to have a unique common identifier, to enable trades to be traced and traders to be identified. We are extending Basin Plan time lines to achieve water recovery targets and time lines for states to deliver water infrastructure projects that will keep water in productive use.

We're also removing the overly restrictive rules so that we can recover the 450 gigalitres of water for enhanced environmental outcomes and getting rid of the cap of voluntary water purchases. These changes are necessary to deliver on the agreement struck between the Murray-Darling Basin water ministers to provide the long asked for certainty to basin stakeholders.

This bill also introduces a suite of water market reforms that will bring integrity and transparency into the system. Basin water markets have grown in value and complexity, outstripping the current rules in place to manage them. These staged reforms mean those buying and selling water can have confidence that the market is operating fairly. Everyone is subject to the same rules, and everyone has access to the same information at the same time.

The bill removes restrictions on the recovery of water, such as a cap on voluntary water purchases or buybacks, and extends time lines. This includes water-saving and efficiency projects being delivered by the basin states, allowing the government to deliver our election commitment to deliver the basin plan in full. The Albanese government has promised that it will always fight to protect our environment. This legislation is another example of continuing that promise. I commend the bill to the House.

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