Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Special Minister of State (Senator Faulkner) to a question without notice asked by Senator Fisher today relating to the Murray-Darling Basin system.

I just want to repeat it, because I cannot believe that Senator Faulkner did not understand the impact of the question. The question related to the Labor government paying an amount of $24 million to buy a water entitlement of some 14 billion litres to feed into the Murray-Darling system. If you did not know too much about that proposal, one might say that it is a good initiative. But there are some concerns about that purchase, which my colleague Senator Heffernan raised in the Senate a couple of days ago, which really do demand some serious investigation by the relevant authorities. I note that Sir Rod Eddington, who is the Labor government’s trusted adviser in several areas, is a member of the board of the vendor company which is receiving the $24 million.

The purchase was to put 14 billion litres into the Murray-Darling system. But, at the same time, this Labor government are facilitating the Victorian Labor government taking out of the Murray-Darling system some 74 to 110 billion litres of water for the north-south pipeline in Victoria. I emphasis that they are paying $24 million to get 14 billion litres into the system and giving away for free something like 80 billion litres. Something like five or six times the amount of water that is being put into the river, they are allowing out. What hypocrisy, what absolute stupidity of this government and a minister, Senator Wong, who is quite clearly incapable of dealing with the very difficult issues of water in Australia. The senator is an abject and complete failure in her task as Australia’s water minister.