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

All relevant jurisdictions signed up to the intergovernmental agreement. That was what was announced at COAG on 3 July. What is being worked through is the ways in which we have to give legislative effect to that. That involves, I am advised—and this is outlined in the IGA schedule A—a revised Murray-Darling Basin agreement, which will need to be included as a schedule to the Water Act, amendments to the Water Act, which include provisions enabling referral of state powers, basin state referral bills and a referral intergovernmental agreement. So we are working through those. We will continue to use our best endeavours to meet the 1 November date that first ministers indicated. Obviously, we continue to work through that. There has been a number of meetings at officer level in relation to this issue, and we will continue to engage through that process.