Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For the better part of this year, the efforts of government have focused on an unprecedented public health and economic crisis. While we're continuing our fight against COVID-19, we continue to ensure that other important issues are not neglected. In June, I spoke about the work I've been doing at a local level in relation to the management of water resources in my electorate of Mallee and across the Murray-Darling Basin more broadly. I informed the House of my visit to Dominic Sergi's property in Red Cliffs. Dominic is an engineer by trade and now grows a variety of table grapes.

Hearing from local producers is a priority for me. I know that the expertise and knowledge in my community is where I gain my greatest insights. That's why I convened a roundtable discussion with the minister for water, Keith Pitt, along with stakeholders, including farmers and growers, industry peak bodies and water management authorities. Many involved in the roundtable, me included, were happy to hear that the minister is focused on implementing engineering solutions to manage supply and deliverability issues in the water system. It was agreed that the time for politics and kicking the can down the road is over. We've seen the reports, we've heard from the experts and we've listened to the affected communities. Now is the time to take action to prevent disastrous outcomes for the basin and its communities.

The Murray-Darling Basin is an extraordinarily complex system, and solutions to the challenges we face require extensive intergovernmental cooperation, stakeholder consultation and compromise. Nonetheless, there are identifiable policies that can and should be implemented that will increase community confidence and improve the performance of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

In its five-year assessment of the plan, the Productivity Commission made several recommendations to government. Among them was a call to reform the structure of the MDBA to manage its conflicting roles. Currently, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority supports basin governments to manage shared water resources and joint natural resource management programs, thereby assisting basin governments to implement the plan. However, it is also seen as the regulator of the plan, as it's required to ensure compliance with the plan and make final judgements on the success of project implementation under the plan. In effect, the MDBA's current structure allows it to mark its own homework. For the purposes of transparency and credibility, change is required. We need one body to deliver the plan and one body to enforce the plan's requirements.

I know this measure is supported by dairy farmers in my electorate—as Andrew Leahy, a dairy farmer from Murrabit, has told me. Andrew is one of many who has said that we need to separate policy and operations within the MDBA to ensure that the authority isn't checking its own work.

Another issue raised by many farmers, growers, organisations and community members from my electorate, time and time again, is that no more water can legitimately be recovered from the consumptive pool. The 450-gigalitre recovery target needs to be met through engineering solutions and efficiency measures that do not have an impact on the consumptive pool. Farmers cannot afford more water being taken. We need a clear approach to meeting water recovery targets so that our critical industries and basin communities are protected, and we need a demonstrated commitment that this water will not be recovered through buybacks. Any further buybacks would have a devastating impact on the social and economic fabric of our basin communities, which is something we in Mallee cannot support. A strategy for the implementation of water recovery projects needs to be outlined which prioritises efficiency measures that do not result in adverse socioeconomic impacts for basin communities and their industries.

We owe it to our farmers, irrigators and drought affected communities to restore confidence in the complex system that governs the management of Australia's water resources. Following the Productivity Commission's recommendation to split the MDBA and restating the federal government's commitment to achieve water recovery through efficiency measures and not buybacks are two means through which confidence in the plan can be restored. I have been discussing these options for some time with residents of my electorate and with the minister for water, Keith Pitt. I look forward to continuing these discussions for the benefit of my basin communities.