Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for the Environment and Water. How is the Albanese Labor government tracking on delivery of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, and how does this compare to other approaches?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Boothby and acknowledge the strong commitment the member for Boothby has to the health of the River Murray. I acknowledge the commitment of everyone on this side of the House, and a little bit over as well, to the health of the full Murray-Darling Basin, a system that had been overallocated to death.

This government, the Albanese Labor government, is committed to delivering the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and delivering it in full. The pathway to deliver the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is to make sure that there is water preserved for the environment. The overall plan as at the end of 2025—there are two areas at the moment where water had to be acquired. The first is with respect to what's called the bridging-the-gap target, and the government has now acquired 99 per cent of the water for the bridging-the-gap target. The additional environmental water, the additional 450 gigalitres—when we came to office, those opposite had acquired 24 gigalitres of the 450.

David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a trash plan.

Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Why do they hate farmers?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have now recovered 225 gigalitres for that 450 target—

Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Buybacks kill communites. You wouldn't be able to find Murray Darling if you put it in a GPS.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and have a plan to recover—

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

The minister's going to pause. The member for Barker and the Leader of the Nationals, I want to hear the answer. Can you help me with that, because you are being completely disruptive. The Leader of the House will continue.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And a plan announced by the minister for the environment is to now recover more than 400 of the 450-gigalitre target by the end of this year. To do that, at the end of last year the minister for the environment announced an expression-of-interest process to make sure that, in acquiring water, we did so in a way that delivered value for money.

This has not always been the way that water is acquired under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. When those opposite were in office, there was water acquired from the northern basin. The government of the day spent $80 million for the entitlement. At the time, that entitlement—guess how much water it had allocated to it. Zero. They spent $80 million for it. And, if anyone's wondering whether it was value for money, it was value for money for someone, because the company that it was bought from booked a $52 million profit.

The history of that company is interesting. It was formed with the original director being the now Leader of the Opposition. And the government of the day paid Versace prices for water from the Reject Shop. Only the Leader of the Opposition could explain how on earth that was in the public interest.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.