Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will just supplement Senator Nash’s support for this from the coalition’s perspective. This is an important amendment because it is about transparency, accountability and timeliness. It does not seek to be overtly prescriptive on the government. What it seeks to ensure, though, is that the government, as they commit Commonwealth funds to supporting these important infrastructure projects, reveal the details of those projects and the savings they are seeking to acquire. It seeks to ensure that they keep the parliament and the public updated, on a six-monthly basis, as to the progress of and changes in those projects and that, in doing so, they can be held to account for the progress of those projects and, ideally, the water that is saved. It is an important measure of transparency. It is also, as I indicated, about timeliness. The first report would be due by the middle of next year, which would ensure that the many different water-saving infrastructure projects that exist throughout the basin community can be fully assessed and detailed by the government in that time line so that we all understand precisely where we are going from there. With that, I would commend the amendment to the committee and encourage the government to consider it as a measure not that seeks to tie their hands but that seeks simply to ensure the type of transparency, accountability and timeliness that we believe is necessary to deliver appropriate water-saving infrastructure.