Damian Drum (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over 2.2 million people live across the most productive agricultural region in Australia, and that is the Murray-Darling Basin. Those 2.2 million people are in extreme fear of a Labor government and the Greens party in relation to their water policies.

When a senior journalist recently interviewed the shadow water minister, the member for Griffith, and asked whether they would increase buybacks out of agriculture, buying water off desperate farmers—and there is a 100 gigalitre cap in this area—the shadow minister would not answer the question. This is the most destructive policy you can have for over two million people who live around the Murray-Darling Basin, and she was noncommittal about increasing the cap on buying water from farmers. When it came to an additional 450 gigalitres that the plan is demanding be flushed down the rivers—again, this water cannot be delivered without causing incredible pain and damage to the agricultural sector—again, the member for Griffith's was noncommittal and would not comment on another 450 gigalitres being taken away from agriculture.

These issues are critical to the two million people living up and down the Murray-Darling Basin, and it is a real and genuine concern that the Labor Party will simply go after desperate farmers and buy their water. (Time expired)