I move:

That this House:

(1) calls on the Government to:

(a) immediately pause further purchases of water entitlements from irrigated agriculture in the Murray-Darling Basin until the 2026 reviews of the Water Act 2007, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, and the National Food Security Strategy have been considered and secured; and

(b) establish a 2026-27 Murray-Darling Basin Productive Water Initiative under which, subject to law and critical environmental needs, 75 per cent of available Commonwealth environmental water is made available for agricultural production in the 2026-27 growing season;

(2) calls for water:

(a) made available under this initiative to be returned to the productive pool in the valleys from which it was acquired, wherever possible; and

(b) to be allocated to agricultural producers through a transparent, market-based process;

(3) recognises that:

(a) water used for agriculture supports economic activity beyond the farm gate, including:

(i) food and fibre processing;

(ii) manufacturing;

(iii) engineering;

(iv) transportation;

(v) logistics;

(vi) regional jobs;

(vii) exports; and

(viii) local resilience;

(b) this initiative/intervention:

(i) is at zero cost to Government;

(ii) is revenue accreditive;

(iii) expands the tax base for Government;

(iv) secures skilled workforce; and

(v) has land and operational equipment at the ready; and

(c) keeping Murray-Darling Basin communities productive matters to Australia's food security, food affordability, drought resilience and sovereign capability; and

(4) further calls on the Government to:

(a) put water back into the productive pool; and

(b) assist Murray-Darling Basin communities, Australian food production, and regional jobs in becoming aligned with the environmental objectives.

Let me be upfront about this motion. This is not a free lunch. Every megalitre we release into production this spring is a megalitre to be replaced with inflows over the next 12 months. There is a genuine trade-off. I won't pretend otherwise, because the moment I do, the argument falls apart. But the one trade-off is worth taking right now, this year, for one reason: Mother Nature has done something the Bureau of Meteorology didn't forecast. A wet winter and an early spring are filling our storages and assisting in completing the environmental watering programs the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder need to deliver this year. This is water that, under section 108 of the Water Act 2007, would ordinarily stay locked away.

Water, this year, is genuinely available. This motion asks the basin authority and the Environmental Water Holder to confirm exactly how much, on an accelerated timeline—not to surrender control but to exercise it faster, because the timeline is the entire point. Some will say this reallocation goes too far and that it risks the environmental gains the Basin Plan was built to protect. I take that concern seriously, and I ask the members to look at how this mechanism is built. This is a one-off season reallocation, tied to this year's exceptional inflows, not a permanent change to entitlements. The water must return to the region it came from, and it cannot be stripped out and sold elsewhere—and nothing moves without the basin authority or the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder confirming that it is consistent with their own environmental obligations. This is not a decorative safeguard; they are the conditions on which this motion stands or falls.

The optimum spring planting window is mid-September to mid-October. It is open right now. Miss it and our regional economies contract for another year. Catch it and they respond immediately. The land is ready, our farmers are skilled, the equipment is in the paddocks and our forward markets are already pricing Australian-grown food. Every piece of this equation is in place except one: the water needs to be released into production in time.

The scale of what is at stake is real. Irrigated agriculture uses less than one per cent of our farmland, yet produces close to 30 per cent of our agricultural output. The Murray-Darling Basin alone accounts for around 60 per cent of the nation's irrigated land and 40 per cent of our food production—worth in the order of $25 billion a year—and supports more than 8,000 irrigation businesses.

In May 2025, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer said this government is securing Australia's future by making our economy more productive and more resilient. I take them at their word. This motion is not an attack on that agenda; it's a direct test and an alignment with it. This motion is anchored to the government's objectives and to the planting window, not to a calendar. I've asked for a decision with enough time left in the planning season for it to matter—a decision by 3 October. I'm not asking the basin authority to cut corners; I'm asking the minister to come back to this House within three sitting days and confirm the water trade, in public, while there is still time left in the planting window to act.

The choice before this House is vital to Australia's planting window and productivity objectives. It's between a measured one-off authority-approved trade-off made this week and a defined benefit to regional Australia by default—12 more months of waiting while reports are written and a season planting window is abandoned. Australia cannot afford to waste this unique opportunity. I commend the motion to the House and call for a seconder.

Is there a seconder for the motion?

With great pleasure, I second the motion and note that communities such as Dirranbandi and St George, where I once lived, are so reliant also. People should be aware that the Murray-Darling Basin includes Goondiwindi; it includes Nemingha. If we don't get this right, we bring into poverty so many areas.

The Murray-Darling. Basin is one of Australia's most important natural assets, and getting its management right matters enormously to all who depend on it. That's why the Albanese government remains committed to delivering the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in full. For almost 20 years, Commonwealth and basin state governments have recognised that action is needed to protect the long-term health of this river system. The basin plan exists because, for decades, too much water was taken from our rivers for agriculture and human use, leaving little to sustain the environment. Water sustains communities, supports agriculture and keeps the ecosystems upon which the entire basin depends healthy, because there are no jobs on a dead river.

Our responsibility is to make decisions today that ensure that these rivers remain healthy and productive for generations to come. That challenge will only become greater as climate change creates a hotter and drier basin, with rainfall and water availability becoming less predictable. I understand the concerns raised in this motion about agricultural production, regional jobs and food security. Nobody on this side of the House disputes the enormous contribution made by our farmers. For me personally, my family have firsthand experience growing citrus, grapes and vegetables in the Sunraysia region. Agriculture supports jobs well beyond the farm gate, through manufacturing, transport, processing, exports and countless regional businesses. In fact, agricultural businesses that are dependent on the basin contribute around $30 billion to the Australian economy.

But presenting this debate as a choice between farmers and the environment fundamentally misunderstands the challenge before us. When the government purchases water entitlements, it does so from willing sellers. Farmers who decide to sell deserve fair compensation, and many use those proceeds to reinvest directly back into their farms. Nor are voluntary purchases the only tool being used. Since 2022, the Albanese government has committed more than $870 million to state and community led projects designed to improve water efficiency in the irrigation networks. I can see that approach firsthand in my own community in the North. The Albanese government is partnering with the city of Playford and the city of Salisbury to reduce our reliance on the River Murray.

More than $16.3 million is being provided to the two councils through the South Australian Alternative Water Supply Efficiency Measures Program. Together, these projects are projected to save 1,264.4 megalitres of water every year. Recycled water will be connected to 17 sites, supporting our community while reducing demand on the Murray. In Salisbury, investment will support stormwater harvesting, managed aquifer recharge, connections between the Salisbury and Playford recycled water networks, and groundwater desalination infrastructure. That alternative water can then support public open spaces, schools and industrial customers.

These are practical projects that demonstrate that environmental responsibility and community development go hand in hand. In fact, those two local projects alone will save water equivalent to more than half of the 2,000 megalitres returned to the river system by the former Liberal government over nine years. And in June this year the Albanese Labor government reached an important milestone, recovering 380,400 megalitres towards the 450,000-megalitre target for the Murray. We are also supporting communities through the $300 million Sustainable Communities Program, investing in local projects, infrastructure and opportunities for emerging industries.

Despite the picture sometimes painted in these debates, Australian agriculture continues to perform strongly. Agricultural production exceeded $100 billion in 2025-26, reaching industry's 2030 target four years early. Food security also remains a priority, with Feeding Australia developing a national strategy to strengthen the resilience of our food system into the future.

Major reviews of water management are also underway. The Basin Plan Review, Water Act review, Productivity Commission water inquiry and other processes are examining how water should be managed into the future. Almost 2½ thousand submissions have been made during consultation on the Basin Plan Review. Farmers, industry, local governments, community organisations and residents have all contributed their experiences and perspectives. Those voices deserve to be heard, and this government will continue listening carefully as that work progresses

Ultimately, the future of the Murray Darling Basin cannot be reduced to a choice between environmental water and productive water. It's about ensuring both can prosper long into the future.

by leave—I thank the Chamber for leave. I had only a few seconds earlier. Why waste the time? Tomorrow I'm going to the opening of one of the most substantial pieces of infrastructure in Tamworth. There's a $1.3 billion chicken processing factory—I suppose you'd call it that; it looks like a spaceship. And it's by Baiada. There's $1.3 billion in the total infrastructure spend that's around it. This is going to process seven million birds a week. The issue is we almost lost it because we didn't have the water. If you don't have water, you don't have industry. If you don't have industry, you don't have jobs; 1,200 people in Tamworth will be employed by this.

One of the issues—we fought for so long—was Dungowan Dam. The Labor Party, which are supposed to look after labourers, came in. The first thing they did was to come up with this stupendous number, that it was going to cost $1.3 billion—they could never quite tell us why on earth it was going to cost $1.3 billion—and shut it down. So now we don't have the water. We're searching for potable water, searching around bores and coming up with all these other ideas. We've spent $75 million on a pipeline to what was supposed to be the new water infrastructure. But the water infrastructure is not there. This gives you an example of the length and breadth of how Murray Darling Basin water policy affects so many people—not just in agriculture but away from agriculture. We also have to meet the requirements of a standard of living in so many regional towns that is premised on people's access to water.

The biggest water holder in Australia is not Australian Food & Fibre; it's not any entity. It's a thing called the Commonwealth. That is the biggest water holder, and it holds water through the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holders book—it's known as the CEWH. This massive asset is badly managed.

We all know that in actual irrigation, as a member for Farrer would know better than anybody else in this building, you water up assets before you plant. You water up assets as you grow them in crop, as they call it. This is all part of it. But when the Commonwealth turns up, they say: 'Well, we're never actually going to tell you how much water we need to water up an environmental asset. We just need all this water. We're never going to tell you exactly the efficacy of what this water use is, of how much can get past the Barmah Choke.' They just say, 'Well, it's a virtue.' But virtues don't pay the bills.

We have to better exercise this asset to achieve its environmental outcomes and also work hand in hand with the people of the Murray-Darling Basin who are doing the great moral duty of providing food not only for Australia but for the global food stack. There's only a small portion for the global food stack, but you're doing the right thing, doing nothing, doing the wrong thing or just taking from it. Australia has a moral obligation to provide food into the global food stack, but, more and more, as our population grows, our proportionate delivery into that food stack is getting less and less. In fact, we're getting to the perverse position now where we're starting to import more and more of our own food. It's not just enough to shut down our power supplies; now we're actually affecting our capacity to feed ourselves.

We have to realise the wider aspects of this. It's not just the farmers, but the hairdressers, tyre businesses, getting people into the social structure, the schools are all affected by access to water. If you want a working example of that, I can take you to Collarenebri, I can take you to Dirranbandi, I can take you to St George and you will see the direct correlation between access to water and standard of living. One of the greatest mechanisms for the social advancement and economic advancement of Aboriginal Australia is access to water for the commercial purposes of growing crops. If you take that away, you are intrinsically saying, 'I want your long-term purpose to be poor,' and we can't do that.

In my part, I'll stand behind what I have been part of and what One Nation will be part of. We believe in building dams. In the past, Dungowan Dam was knocked over by the Labor Party. They got rid of Hells Gate. They got rid of the Bowen pipeline. They got rid of Emu Swamp. They got rid of Urannah. I was part of building Rookwood dam, Charlton Dam, Quipolly Dam, Chaffey. We had the MDB upgrades, and more of this should be done because this is the enterprise that takes our nation ahead. This is an enterprise that takes regional areas ahead, and I commend the member for Farrer for his work and diligence in this area.

Our federal government is delivering the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in full. I want to not only acknowledge the national significance of the basin to our nation but also the fact that climate change will mean that a hotter and drier basin in the future, less predictable rainfall. Water availability is going to make it particularly challenging and that's why it this is so important to get right. We accept that changes are happening to patterns and that we must make hard decisions to make sure that there's enough water to sustain not only the communities that honourable members represent but also industry's needs and the environmental requirements for that climate-impacted future. The member for Spence articulated this extremely well earlier, particularly from a South Australian perspective, but I want to acknowledge the genuine interests that are held by those further upstream as well.

Our Labor government has a significant body of work across the nation that will shape the management of water, including environmental water, for a generation. Investment in diverse and climate resilient water sources to maintain water security across Australia is a national priority. I was proud to represent Minister for the Environment and Water, Senator Murray Watt, at the opening of the Manton Dam Return to Service project earlier this month just south of Darwin. This project is part of a sustainable long-term infrastructure solution that will deliver safe and secure drinking water for Territorians, as well as enable economic growth and job creation through sustainable irrigated agriculture and industry expansion. The Manton Dam Return to Service project was funded by our federal government through the National Water Grid Fund and in partnership with the Territory government.

Under the Darwin Region Water Supply Infrastructure Program stage 1, the Commonwealth invested $300 million, or over 90 per cent of the funding, and the Territory government the balance of about $27 million. This investment supports expected growth in demand within the Darwin region and builds water security, which will support generations to come and ensure the region can continue to grow by delivering safe, reliable water supply for the Territory. This is the most significant water infrastructure milestone in the Territory in 50 years, since the Darwin River Dam was built in the early 1970s, and it's a critical addition to Darwin's future water supply. The project includes delivery of upgrades at Manton Dam's reservoir, the new Strauss Water Treatment Plant that I visited recently delivering really high water quality standards, a new pump station and 22 kilometres of pipeline to deliver water to the plant from the reservoir. This reservoir is a unique multi-use asset that will continue to provide recreational opportunities for Territorians and visitors while supporting Darwin's future water security, with the project delivering an additional 7,300 megalitres of water each year.

Importantly, Manton Dam continues to be a place for locals and visitors to relax at and enjoy while also helping to secure more water for the greater Darwin region. The project team tells me that the project has come in $15 million under budget, and it was a strong partnership between a local contractor, Exact Contracting, and the Power and Water Corporation and the Northern Territory government to ensure the project was delivered on time and under budget. That $15 million by which it came in under budget is going to be reallocated to planning works for the proposed Adelaide River Off-stream Water Storage, or AROWS, project, also part of stage 1 of the Darwin Region Water Supply Infrastructure Program. I heard honourable members earlier mentioning dams. This AROWS project is the building of a reservoir that is off the Adelaide River, to be filled with Adelaide River water and used for continued water security into the future.

These projects improve redundancy and enable growth and economic development in the Darwin region over the long term. The updated National Water Agreement ensures water planning is risk based and adaptive to respond to increasing demand and climate variability to maintain urban water security, which is, of course, a very big priority for me as the federal member for Solomon, including the great northern cities of Darwin and Palmerston, just as the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is for so many here, for the good of our nation.

I've said it before and I will say it again in this place: water is absolutely the lifeblood of Australian agriculture. Without water, there's no food, no fibre, no clothes to wear, no flour to make bread, no agricultural exports and no avocado on toast. This is not just about primary producers; it's about all Australians. Every drop removed from production affects our primary producers. It affects our processors, our transport operators, our employment and our entire nation. It is that basic. We need food to live and we need water to grow food. Food security and water security should be our national priorities, not funding another train to Melbourne or shoring up Labor's seats. Australians need to eat. We can't see our country plunged into that same crisis of sovereignty over a lack of access to fuel. We can't keep reducing water availability to grow food and fibre. Our food prices and other cost-of-living prices are already at an all-time high.

Regional communities are already suffering from the impacts of water buybacks and recovery. When you take water from a community, it withers and it dies. It struggles to maintain its population. What this looks like on the ground is families losing generational farms, schools closing, support industry shutting down, employment ending and people being forced to move out of our regional communities right across Australia. This is another way of saying having less water brings more heartbreak to regional communities, and it absolutely shatters dreams. Our regions are the heart of this country, and we should be pumping lifeblood into that heart, not draining it.

In places like Warren—home to the amazing young man Dusty, who today will finish his walk to parliament to raise funds for Little Wings, a very worthy cause—the population, unfortunately, is shrinking. The population dropped more than 10 per cent between the 2011 and 2016 censuses and by a further eight per cent between 2016 and 2021. This shows that, if you take water from a vibrant community, populations will drop. Warren is losing the next generation, our younger generation.

Unfortunately, instead of helping regional communities, this Labor government continues to hit them where it hurts. It continues to beat down innovation and resilience—that great Australian drive to work hard and to produce something worthwhile. We need more water, more crops, more exports, more regional jobs, more economic activity, stronger supply chains and greater food security. We need to end further Murray-Darling Basin water buybacks. Australia can't afford any further reduction of water for our farming, for jobs and for productive use. Instead, we're getting the slow strangulation of water availability.

Let's take a look at just one example, the Wilcannia Weir, in my electorate. The people of Wilcannia, a remote community in north-west New South Wales, have been fighting for a new weir for more than 60 years. This is a community's source of sustainable water. It's a predominantly Aboriginal community. They have waited through feasibility studies, design processes, talkfests, inspections—still no weir. The previous coalition federal and state governments committed a total of $30 million for the design and construction. That's what it cost at the time. Under Labor, this vital upgrade project is now gone. Delay after delay, excuse after excuse. Now it looks like the cost of that new weir is $130 million. That's $100 million more than the original plan that we were going to build as the coalition in government. Unsurprisingly, the Labor government announced this weir, the Wilcannia Weir, has now been put on hold. It's not good enough. How long should a community have to wait for the most basic services? As I said, this is just one example of the absolute neglect for regional communities and the sheer arrogance and ignorance this Labor government has shown towards people of regional communities.

Every day, every drop is important. Buybacks come with huge implications. We should support practical measures that deliver both healthy rivers and support the lifeblood of our communities.

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.