Steve Hutchins (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There are people in the opposition who clearly know what needs to occur. If you listen to some of the things that that maverick senator, Senator Heffernan, says—despite some of the other things that he says—he makes a lot of sense in a number of these areas.

The one thing that clearly comes out in all this is that if there were more water in this Murray-Darling system it would be used. But the fact is that we have not had sustained rainfall for some time. There are many communities in these areas that are very frightened about their future. That is why I say that this should be depoliticised. As we saw only last week—and Senator Fisher would agree with me—one of the minor parties, and I am talking about the National Party, took opportunistic shots during the inquiry. They took any opportunity to try and scare people and came up with bandaid solutions, or tried to pull magic out of the sky to make available water that is not there.

I say to the opposition: the water is not there. We are being confronted with issues that I am sure none of us would have wanted to have to deal with. But the fact is that there is no water. If you listen to some of your senior colleagues—