Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

What we do need here, obviously, is the agreement among basin states and stakeholders to proceed forward with the Basin Plan. So, when we have discussions about the additional 450 gigalitres or the overall implementation of the plan, including environmental works and measures and other projects, we need to make sure that basin states are on side.

As it stands, there are disagreements among some of those basin states. There is a Victorian Labor government who is opposing additional delivery of water through the Murray-Darling Basin. It is strange that we do not hear questions from Victorian Labor senators here on these types of questions. I know some of them, like Senator Marshall, have great interest in some regional community towns in Victoria, like Ballarat. He is very interested in Ballarat right now, so I am sure he would be interested in keeping the McCain potato factory going in Ballarat. But we need to make sure we have a balance here, and that is why we have committed to more discussions at COAG—to elevate it to that level. That is what is needed and that is what a responsible government does to deliver the plan.