Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I will take that interjection. Senator Kemp says, ‘Do something about it.’ I am about to tell him what we are doing. This is a situation which arises as a result of, firstly, climate change and the fact that climate change is impacting on rainfall availability through the Murray-Darling Basin. They scoff on the other side of the chamber, but we know from the CSIRO, from the sustainable yield study, that it is quite clear that we have a significant problem in the Murray-Darling Basin as a result of both climate change and drought. So what can we do about this? What the government have done is this: first, the government achieved a historic agreement with the basin states at the COAG in March, for the first time in this nation’s history, to manage this basin as a whole, to reflect the fact that rivers run across borders—something you never achieved. What else is the government doing? Second, we are allocating $3.1 billion to purchase water for the River Murray and we have already started spending that to return water to the river, to deal with exactly the sorts of environmental problems that the Coorong and lower lakes are having. That is something you never did.

Through you, Mr President, if Senator Chapman is serious about assisting the lower lakes and the Coorong, he needs to talk to some of his people on that side, members and senators in the opposition who still do not agree with the idea of purchasing water for the river. We know that Mr Cobb has said that we should not be doing this or has raised concerns about it. We know that Senator Joyce said in estimates hearings that he does not agree with the long-term target of returning 1,500 gigalitres to the River Murray. If you, the opposition, are to have any credibility on the issue of water then you need to deal with those on your side who oppose the government purchasing water to return it to the river, as we need to do to deal with the environmental problems we confront.