Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I do understand why the government has ruled that out. The evidence that the committee received revolved around issues of just terms and the fact that, by excluding it, you are excluding a mechanism that may be useful to farmers. I have taken on board what you said, but I do not necessarily agree with it. But did you look at those issues around just terms compensation and the fact that it may be useful to help farmers exit from what in the future could be difficult circumstances in the basin, if what we fear occurs—that is, there is an overall reduction in the amount of water in the basin? Obviously, there will be a reduction in the cap at some stage, but that may be much more significant in the future than we are anticipating if climate change does have the impact on water resources that some suspect it might. It might be a useful tool for government and the community to actually have. Was that considered?