Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Farrell, I apologise; I am seriously not trying to pin you down. When I read the bill I saw clause 86AG, which gave a schedule of yearly payments of varying amounts over time from 2014 to 2024. When I look at that I assume—maybe naively—that some work has been done to come up with those figures. I am not trying to pin you down; it was my assumption that we have put some money there and done some thinking behind how we are going to spend that. But I understand what you are saying; there are parties—little ps and big Ps, going back to our discussion yesterday—to this discussion which have to have input into the process, the basin states being a key group. So when I ask for a time frame it is because we want to know and our communities want to know so that the uncertainty that both the government and the coalition are keen to see ending in Murray-Darling Basin communities will not be strengthened. I do not want an actual date; just a month, a quarter or even a semester would be good.

How long, roughly, is the constraint study going to take? I do not want a start date. I do not want an end date. Is it six months, is it a year, is it 18 months? How much have we allowed to gather the information we need in order to start the constraint-removal work that we want to do so we can start getting some environmental to those assets, as the plan sets out?

When do we think that the on-farm efficiency grants might happen? I do not think I am out of line in thinking that if we have allocated money along a timeline we might have thought about the next level down in the budget process. I would like you, Senator Farrell, if you can, to give me a loose time frame around that. I would be very appreciative, as would the constituents who have come to see me on a regular basis on this issue. I was at the Mildura public meeting years ago for the first draft. This has been a long process, and there are a lot of people who would like some rough guidelines.

My understanding is the way in which these programs are going to be rolled out will be different to the way in which past programs have been rolled out. Do you have any commentary around the likelihood of producers and irrigators in taking up these programs? Are they going to be as fully subscribed in the same manner as previous programs have been?