Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Hansard source

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, my question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Senator McKenzie. Last Friday I wrote this letter to the Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management, Mr David Littleproud:

Dear minister, I am writing to you to urgently request the release of 200 gigalitres of water from the Commonwealth environmental water reserves currently being held in Hume and Dartmouth dams. The purpose of the release is to allow additional irrigation allocations to water rights holders along the Murray River in southern New South Wales and northern Victoria. Without the water, crops currently in the ground will fail and rural communities will be adversely affected.

That 200 gigalitres represents a measly five to seven per cent of the water in the Hume and Dartmouth dams, with spring snow melt yet to come. As Minister for Agriculture, do you support my request for immediate release of this emergency water to farmers in your state and in New South Wales to stop their crops from dying?