Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Is the Prime Minister aware of an allegation that there is a $900 million hole in the provision of funds for the government’s national initiative on water security? What is the Prime Minister’s response?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am aware of this allegation. It was contained in a document prepared by the management team of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission and sent to partner governments in the current commission arrangement. After it appeared in the papers this morning, it was trumpeted by the member for Grayndler, the member for Lilley and the member for Melbourne. If that was the trumpeting, and that is the history, I can inform the House that the allegation is completely incorrect. I can also inform the House that this has been acknowledged by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, which, shortly before question time, issued a statement saying:

This document contains—

referring to the document issued last night—

a statement that “the available budget for a new Commission will be decreased by approximately $900 million over 10 years”. I am now aware that this statement is incorrect.

That has been issued under the name of Wendy Craik, the chief executive of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission.

This little incident illustrates the two faces of the Leader of the Opposition. When I announced my plan, the Leader of the Opposition said, ‘I want to take politics out of water.’ He said: ‘I want to end the blame game. I want to cooperate with the Prime Minister.’

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Whose document was it? Only the Murray-Darling Basin Commission’s!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He was saying that, and all the while he has his three amigos endeavouring at every turn to undermine the plan. It would have been quite easy—if the Leader of the Opposition or any of his frontbench had wanted to know whether the claim made in that document was correct, all they needed to do was ring up my office or ring up my department and they could have been told. But no, it is rather like what happened last week with Work Choices. There you had the Leader of the Opposition soft selling it to the business community, but the next morning the Deputy Leader of the Opposition brought him into line.

The truth is that the Leader of the Opposition has played a double game on this water issue. He has pretended that he is bipartisan and that he is above politics, but at the first opportune moment he has got his colleagues out there saying there is a funding hole, that there is no bottom line, that the document lacks integrity. This visionary plan—which I believe is the greatest single attempt by any national government to solve the problem of the Murray-Darling Basin—will provide $10 billion of entirely new money over and above—

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Tanner interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Melbourne is warned!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

the financial provision the Commonwealth now makes. I look forward to my meeting at four o’clock this afternoon with the premiers of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission states and also the premiers of Western Australia and Tasmania, who are likewise attending this meeting. This is an historic opportunity to do something of a lasting and permanent character to solve the problem of the Murray-Darling Basin, and all the opposition has been able to do is engage in cheap opportunism. I table the statement from Wendy Craik of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister and follows on from his answer to the previous question about the importance of taking politics out of water. Given the national water crisis requires that we all work together, and given the premiers are about to arrive in Canberra, will the Prime Minister now agree to provide me with a full briefing from his officials on the details and costing of the national water plan, as I requested in this letter one week ago, particularly, Prime Minister, as those details have been challenged not by us but by officials from the Murray-Darling Basin Commission?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition did write to me. I wrote back to him, thanked him for his letter and drew his attention to the fact that we would be having a meeting this afternoon. I said that, following that meeting, I am willing to provide additional briefings on the outcomes of the meeting. I said that the essential information is already on the public record. I attached a copy of my speech, the detailed explanatory material and copies of my letters to the premiers and the chief ministers. Crucially, in the last paragraph I said, ‘In the meantime, should you seek additional information, please contact my office.’

I would have thought a prudent Leader of the Opposition or a prudent shadow Treasurer or finance spokesman or water spokesman, in picking up that Murray-Darling Basin Commission document this morning and seeing an allegation of a $900 million hole, might have said: ‘Hang on, this mightn’t be right. Maybe the sensible thing to do is to ring up Howard’s office.’ But, oh no! They fell over themselves. They raced to the doors and said: ‘Aha! We have a black hole.’ They know a lot about black holes. The reality is that the opposition has played politics on this issue, despite the fact that the Leader of the Opposition pretended when I first made my announcement.

I conclude by making the observation that the reason the Commonwealth is able to offer $10 billion in an historic effort to resolve this issue is that we have run a strong economy. If our budget had been in deficit, if we had not got rid of Labor’s debt and if we had not run a strong economy, this nation would not be able to afford to fix the Murray-Darling Basin. So the starting point for all of these things is prudent economic management in the hands of experienced economic managers such as the Treasurer, my colleague and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party. It is through the quality of his management, above all else, that we have been able to steer this country into a situation where we can afford to fix these issues. All the Leader of the Opposition and his cohorts can do is play politics with the water crisis facing Australia.