Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

You asked others to speak off the cuff. That's exactly what I'm doing. Of course, this is built on a plan. Our 'restoring our rivers' bill will make sensible and practical amendments to the Water Act 2007 and the consequential amendments to the Basin Plan in 2012, so we can get back to the job of fixing this river system. We will implement the plan in full and finish what we started.

The minister for the environment has driven new consultations with the basin stakeholders and basin governments where support for the plan has been renewed. There are calls for greater flexibility in achieving water recovery targets and calls for greater investment in measures that deliver tangible environmental outcomes, and this bill delivers on those calls. The bill also delivers what the former government could not or would not; they just ignored it. Essentially the bill removes the overly restrictive rules so that we can recover the 450 gigalitres of water for enhanced environmental outcomes. These changes are necessary to deliver on the agreements struck between the Murray-Darling Basin water ministers to provide the certainty long asked for by so many across the basin.

I think this bill is critically important and builds on the work already done. The bill also introduces a suite of water market reforms that will bring integrity, fairness and transparency to the system. The amendment reflects the growth in the value and complexity in the current rules that are not fit for purpose. The bill will deliver staged reforms that will mean buying and selling water can occur equally, and with confidence that the same rules apply to everyone.

Whether you are a farmer, an irrigator, a conservationist or one of the 2.3 million residents in the regions on the Murray-Darling, this river system is there for all who rely on it, particularly—I feel like there is a bit of deja vu here—for the residents of South Australia, for people that are at the end of the Murray-Darling system. We should not have to bear the consequences of constant infighting, constant partisanship on this and a lack of cooperation. This is a national resource. It is one that so many different people rely on, and it needs to be treated with the importance and the reverence it deserves. That's why I call on all, whether they are in the Greens party, the National Party or the Liberal Party, to rise above the partisan politics and do what's in the national interest—to return the Murray-Darling Basin to its full potential, to ensure its sustainability and ensure that future generations and communities can enjoy this natural resource.

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