Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education and Childcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to talk about 50 farm families on 10,000 hectares just a few kilometres out of Shepparton. These people, for the last 112 years, have been depending on a stock and domestic water supply system through earthen channels diverted out of the Broken River. This system has served them very well. They have been very viable, productive sheep/cropping farmers. But obviously you cannot have livestock and you cannot sustain critical human needs without water and, unfortunately, they have had their water supply cease as a result of the decommissioning of Lake Mokoan. That means that the water they once used to have through an environmental flow supported supply coming down Broken River no longer serves them. This is also compounded by the drought.

This could be fixed very simply by a pipeline that would come out of the eastern main channel and deliver water to them at a cost of between $5 million and $7 million. That would go to, as I said, 50 families across 10,000 hectares. It does not seem too much, given the pipeline would save a considerable amount of water that could go back to Penny Wong and the Commonwealth. But, no. They have been told: ‘You are not on our list. We are not even thinking about you. You are just people who have to continue to cart your water in tanks on the back of utilities for 15 kilometres to keep your stock alive and to supply your homes with water to flush toilets, wash your clothes and wash your children.’ That is what these people are doing. It is a Third World situation in a so-called developed country. These people have been trying to organise to get themselves a system in place now for about five years. It has caused incredible domestic strife and concern, as you can imagine, with families having to put a lot of money and time into getting this water from the local channel.

Hopefully tomorrow, when this group as a delegation is met by the parliamentary secretary, Dr Kelly, they will be able to explain their plight. They have already been knocked back by the Murray-Darling Basin grants program, which was supposed to be for sustainable development for communities.

I want to thank Dr Kelly for seeing this group, but I want to stress that this is about a critical human need: water—water for livestock and which, when saved, can be returned to the environment. It should be a simple matter of ticking a box and saying: ‘Of course you are deserving. We will build this pipeline for you so that you can continue to be great Australian agricultural food and fibre producers.’ It seems ridiculous that this community has to beg after all these years. I have to repeat that the stress on these families has been too much for some to bear. I absolutely look forward to the deputation meeting with Dr Kelly tomorrow. I hope good will come from it, In the first instance, they need a feasibility study to replenish their old plan and to make sure it is best practice.