Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have been listening to some of the contributions in this debate on the Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill 2023 saying that people on our side of politics don't understand the Murray, aren't part of the Murray and have never been to the Murray. I am a Labor member of parliament, I am a Victorian and two of my local government areas are part of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

I also am here to say that I really hope my Labor colleagues in the Victorian government are listening and get on board with the plan. The reason I say that is there is a lot of opportunity for us to actually work together. The fact is that we need more time to deliver the plan. We need more options on how we can return the water required to the Murray. There is more funding on the table. This is where I strongly urge the Victorian government to pick up the phone and start working with us. In my part of the world, we still have channelling, as the previous speaker spoke about. We still have open channels in Greater Bendigo, Mount Alexander and the Macedon Ranges. People still order their water by ringing up Coliban Water and saying, 'We'd like some water, please,' and they literally flush it down their channels. About 60 per cent of that water is lost in evaporation, so there is still lots of opportunity to modernise the water infrastructure in my own electorate. My electorate is about 30 minutes—

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