Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) | Hansard source

Obviously, I know it's been a busy weekend for National Party MPs and senators, with our federal conference. I'm sure Minister Littleproud will be getting to the details of your letter this week. What we do support on this side of the chamber—and I'm sure all of parliament supports—is that Australian irrigators, Australian farmers, can continue to produce. It is incredibly tough out there. That is one thing we did hear at the National Party federal conference over the weekend. That is particularly so in Queensland, New South Wales and sections of Victoria. The majority of the two million Australians that live in the Murray-Darling Basin are producing the food and fibre that we export around the world. They are doing it incredibly tough because of the drought. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is in the process of being implemented. Eighty per cent of it has been implemented thus far. There is obviously a lot of discussion around the CEWH and how some of those environmental holdings can be used, and there are a lot of different ideas around how to use that water, particularly in tough times such as the drought which we're going through. Those questions should be appropriately addressed to the Minister for the Environment, because, as you know, Senator Roberts, it is Sussan Ley, the Minister for the Environment, who has responsibility for the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder.