Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Anyone turning on the television in past months would have seen the terrible effects in South Australia of the river flooding. I thank everyone—including many people from my electorate—who has pitched in and supported our communities along the river. With the river in high flow, it's all too easy to forget that the Murray-Darling is frequently in drought, exacerbated by relentless overextraction.

Of course, we have the $13 billion Murray-Darling Basin Plan that is designed to address this problem. Within the larger plan are the very important efficiency measures that are designed to return 450 gigalitres to the Lower Lakes, the Coorong and the mouth of the Murray. A total of $1.575 billion was set aside to spend between 1 July 2014 and 30 June next year to recover these extra 450 gigalitres. However, we're now nine years into that budget allocation and a mere 4.5 gigalitres, or just one per cent, has been recovered. That's been at a cost of around $275 million. So there's one year left until the plan ends, with 99 per cent of the recovery still to be achieved, and $1.3 billion basically sitting idle. You don't have to be a genius to work out that the 450 gigalitres will not be delivered by 30 June 2024.

The government has had their scientists look at it, and they say—with optimism that, quite frankly, I don't share—that, with the time and money left, we'll get to 60 gigalitres recovery. They estimate that, to get to the full 450 gigalitres, we're going to have to now spend between $3.4 billion and $10.8 billion. To put that into context, that's the value of the water debt that will be owed to South Australians by July next year.

I know Minister Plibersek cares about the 450 gigalitres. In marked-up briefs released under FOI, she's clearly concerned about the failure to deliver this water recovery. But we need more than earnest care; we need a strategy beyond the current plan, which is due to expire in June next year. There was a time when the health of the river was so important that the Weatherill Labor government established a royal commission into the Murray. We need to approach the river with the same sense of importance as we did back then, because these floods will be gone—floods don't last forever—and we will be back in drought. We need to ensure that this river is healthy, for our generation and, importantly, for the many generations to come. We are all sitting idle and allowing this river to die.