Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak to this debate. In relation to thinking about the impact of climate change on drought in this country, you can't go much further than looking at what on earth is going on in the Murray-Darling Basin. We know, of course, because there is a royal commission going on in South Australia right now that is gathering evidence from right across the board that, even with a plan that's been put on the table along with billions of taxpayers' money to deal with the Murray Darling Basin and try to put that river back on to a sustainable footing, climate change was never included in that plan. Here we are at a time when we should be focused on the impacts of climate change, what we can do about reducing carbon pollution and not making climate change worse, but when we also need to deal with the realities that confront us.

We have a Murray-Darling Basin that is being managed appallingly. The plan has not been based on science. We've heard that over and over again from the evidence from this royal commission. It's setting the whole country up to fail. The Murray-Darling Basin is the lifeblood of this nation. It waters our nation's food bowl, yet it has been mismanaged for decades. Now, even though there's seemingly a plan in place, that plan is riddled with errors, mismanagement and corruption.

There are heartbreaking stories coming in from all over the country in relation to drought hitting rural Australia and communities incredibly hard. I tell you one group that isn't suffering so much, and that's the owners of Cubbie Station. With their dams full of water, they're not feeling the pinch much at all. They take water to fill their dams, their tanks and their channels for a not-so-rainy day; meanwhile, downstream the rest of the communities suffer. If we're serious about dealing with climate change and drought in this country, we can go no further than looking at the absolute failure of managing properly the environmental and community needs throughout the Murray-Darling Basin.

I want to put on the record today that I'm disgusted as a South Australian that the Liberal Party and the Liberal government in South Australia is now looking to end this royal commission as quickly as possible when, in fact, they should be fighting for the federal government and the department to front it and give evidence. (Time expired)