Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

If I may briefly return to the previous amendment that was put as I was still seeking some advice. I indicate that we understand the intentions in relation to the investment decisions, we can understand what is behind it, but at the end of the day a minister would be required to make those investment decisions on that basis, and of course for transparency and accountability any investment made by the minister would potentially be able to be discussed at Senate estimates. So we believe it would be inappropriate to put restrictions on the investment decisions by the government and the decisions, of course, will be guided by the basin plan.

In relation to the amendments that are currently before us, the difficulty is that water resources are vested in the states, which therefore have the authority to grant entitlements to take the water. The Commonwealth does not have this power and is, therefore, unable to grant entitlements or to protect the entitlement. Registers provide the legal security for people with legal interests, including ownership, in the entitlement. Consultation with the states has clearly demonstrated the need for unique and complete registers. The development of multiple registers would likely lead to uncertainty and, while it would be possible to establish a central single register for the basin, this would require a referral of power and considerable disruption to the current development of secure registers. The Commonwealth and state governments prefer to retain compatible state registers with a common central information system that will provide easy access to the state registers. This is provided for in part 5 of the bill.

Question negatived.