Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare and Early Childhood Learning) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is appropriate that the first speech that I make in the new parliament concerns the issue that really defines the electorate of Farrer, and that is water. My electorate contains most of the New South Wales Murray River, the Menindee Lakes and the Lower Darling River, as well as the important regional cities of Albury, on the Murray, and Broken Hill, the silver city, which relies on Menindee Lakes for water and feels a close connection with this lake system, an area steeped in Indigenous culture and of great historical significance.

During this winter and spring those of us in the southern Murray-Darling Basin have watched with delight as rain has fallen, storages have filled, rivers have run and plantings have flourished. In fact, flooding rains brought Murray system inflows during the second week of September to a total of 1,090 gigalitres—more than for the entire water year of 2006-07.

However, the basin communities that I represent await the first stage of the release of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s Basin Plan on 8 October with great trepidation. Without wishing to scaremonger, this plan has the potential to reduce water allocations to a stage where some irrigation communities will become almost unviable. The plan was delayed because of the election, and that was the wrong thing to do. Farmers cannot prepare for a future with less water if they do not know what the availability of this most significant input will be. Banks and other lenders cannot provide ongoing credit and other means of support unless they have an idea of that all important bottom line.

I do applaud the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s CEO, Rob Freeman, for his recent acknowledgement of the pain being experienced in the basin, but I am not sure about his statement that the rain creates a more stable foundation on which to produce the new basin plan. The fact that rain has fallen should not allow governments or their agencies to feel anything less than a deep sense of responsibility and accountability for the changes they propose to make to water allocations.

We all accept that we will have sustainable diversion limits, or caps on water extraction, for the valleys in the basin. The question is what these limits will be, how communities will cope and how we can achieve an end result that is in the interests of all Australians, city and country. The end result is critical, and the government is responsible for that result. It is not the Murray-Darling Basin Authority that makes the final decision under the Water Act—it is the minister. I welcome statements made so far by Minister Burke that he appreciates the negative socioeconomic impacts of the Basin Plan and that he wants to be better informed about those impacts. I thank him for his willingness to engage with the communities that I represent. I know he will treat them with respect.

Irrigation feeds the nation and the world. We are crying out for recognition from governments that our towns matter, that our people are doing something worthwhile, that our farmers are not environmental vandals because we use water to grow food and that given half a chance after long years of drought we will thrive and really are a great place to live, work and raise a family. I would like to invite the minister to visit the New South Wales central Murray and Sunraysia regions and see the level of investment and commitment that we bring to Australia’s rural and regional future.

I also wish to raise the issue of the Labor Party’s policy towards Menindee Lakes. Rightly or wrongly, Broken Hill people feel that this government is prepared to sacrifice this lake system for its environmental watering plan, also part of the wider Basin Plan. My question is this: why would you drain environmental wetlands for environmental water? In order, presumably, to give authorities the scope to drain the lakes whenever it suits them, the previous government allocated $16 million to a feasibility study into storing water in an aquifer 20 kilometres south of the town of Menindee. That is a good 100 kilometres from Broken Hill, I think. How do we know this would work? What would be the cost every time you turned on your tap in Broken Hill and, most importantly, who would pay? Usually it is the end user.

I do urge the new water minister and indeed all Australians to visit the magnificent Menindee Lakes, which are now full for the first time in 12 or 14 years and are home to more species of birds than Kakadu National Park. We really must recognise the environmental and cultural significance and the amenities that these lakes provide to everybody touring through the back country looking at how Australia is reborn after recent rains and really appreciate the contribution that we make in western New South Wales to the nation’s bottom line.