Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Water. On the 10th anniversary of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan becoming law, how is the Albanese Labor government delivering on the plan and working to protect our precious river systems? What problems have arisen since the plan was signed into law?

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Makin for that question. Ten years ago the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was signed into law. It was the most important piece of water policy that this country has ever made, and it still leads the world in terms of water policy. It may seem like a very strange time to be talking about water scarcity and drought, when we see the devastation that the Prime Minister was describing earlier in question time. Of course our thoughts are with those individuals and communities who have been affected by these massive floods, with lives lost and property destroyed. But one thing we know about Australia is that as sure as night follows day there will be another drought and we need to be ready for that when it happens.

The plan was constructed at a different time during the brutal millennium drought that made it necessary. It was the good work of the member for Watson that made that plan possible. A decade on I'm pleased to say that we have made real and meaningful progress when it comes to the Murray-Darling system. In the most recent drought, environmental water kept rivers flowing. It flooded wetlands and it gave hope to communities that saw dry river beds otherwise. In the south, the environmental flows helped flush 3.3 million tonnes of salt out through the mouth of the Murray and into the ocean. Without the plan we wouldn't have seen these results and that 2017 to 2019 drought would have been so much worse. But we have to acknowledge that this has been because of the genuine sacrifice of Murray-Darling Basin communities, and our thanks and acknowledgements have to go to those communities.

We still have a challenge. We need to deliver this plan in full. Those opposite have veered from sabotage to scare campaigns. That has been their only response to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. With 450 gigalitres of additional environmental water promised, two gigalitres were delivered by those opposite. 100 dams were promised by those opposite; two dams were delivered by those opposite.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business on a point of order?

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On relevance, in question time you have previously directed a minister to be relevant to the question where the minister has strayed and begun talking about the record of the former government. I ask you to direct the minister to being directly relevant.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question did include what problems have been encountered. The minister is addressing that part of the question. I ask her to return to her answer, but I will listen carefully as she concludes her answer.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, it's ironic, isn't it, that those having achieved a little over the last nine years are prepared to sit here and heckle. We know that full delivery of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is necessary. It's only one side of this Parliament that is fully committed to working with the states and territories to deliver in full on the Basin Plain. It's good for communities, it's good for farmers, it's good for irrigators, and its good for the environment. We know that only full delivery of the Basin Plain will save our river systems and the communities that depend on them.