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

I move:

That the Industry Research and Development (Water for Fodder Program) Instrument 2019, made under the Industry Research and Development Act 1986, be disallowed [F2019L01591].

I rise to speak on this motion of disallowance for the Industry Research and Development (Water for Fodder Program) Instrument 2019. This was a program which was a bit of a thought bubble by the Prime Minister. He didn't know what to do to deal with those who were complaining that his government and his coalition partners in the National Party had stuffed up the management of the Murray-Darling Basin.

As the drought drew on last year and got harsher and harsher, this government had done nothing to make sure that their New South Wales counterparts, their Queensland counterparts and, indeed, even their Victorian counterparts did what they could to ensure sustainable use of the limited amount of water in the Murray-Darling Basin. Rather than doing anything to fix the problem, they went for what they thought was an easy answer. And what was that? It was cutting South Australia's water supply—cutting the allocation that flows over the South Australian border. This program was designed to reduce South Australia's water by 100 gigalitres and to say that that water would then be packaged off and sold at a cheaper rate to farmers further upstream who needed water in the midst of the drought. Rather than accessing water from further upstream from those who had already been too greedy, the government decided to pick on South Australia—at the bottom of the system.

We know that this was happening at the same time as the Liberal government in South Australia was working with the federal water minister to commission a report into cutting South Australia's water supply permanently and replacing it with water from the desal plant. What would that mean? It would mean that South Australians would be saddled with some of the highest water bills in the country. It would mean that South Australians would be paying more than 40 times the market value for water—40 times!—because the government and their Nationals coalition partners in the various state governments could not be bothered putting in place the recommendations, and the reforms that have been needed for far too long, to make sure that the water in the Murray-Darling Basin is managed sustainably and that there is enough there in the dry times as well as the wet.

We know that the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is almost halfway through now and we are still well short of the actions required to make sure the Murray-Darling is put on a sustainable footing. Billions and billions of dollars have been spent on this reform and yet we are staring down the barrel of the government having to announce very soon that they're not going to be able to make the deadlines promised and set out in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. I remember back in 2010 when we were debating the draft of this plan. Those on the opposite side were spearheaded, of course, by the former minister in charge of water, Mr Barnaby Joyce, who never wanted any reference to climate change in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, who would not accept that the system was overallocated, who did not accept the science. He did everything he could with his Nationals mates and his big corporate irrigator mates to destroy that plan and to make it as difficult as possible for us to recover the water that the environment needed.

Fast forward to 2020, a decade later, and billions of dollars have been spent. The reason we have this program before us today is that those opposite stuffed it up. They didn't listen to the science and they spent all the money, some of which went to some of Mr Joyce's mates. Some of it went to companies like those established by Minister Angus Taylor. A lot of the money went to friends of the National Party. But where did all the water go? Well, the water continues to be siphoned off, stored in big private dams and harvested at the expense of neighbours and downstream communities. The only reason this Water for Fodder program is even on the table is that this government is crap at managing the Murray-Darling Basin—incompetent, incapable.

What do you do when you have stuffed up the process, spent billions of dollars and still don't have a management system for a river that is choking, thirsty and crying out for intervention, and you've got small family farmers throughout the basin? It is not their fault the government stuffed it up. It is not their fault that the government did everything they could to make sure the big corporate irrigators were okay but everybody else was left high and dry. What did the government do? They said, 'Oh well, it's the bottom end of the river; they don't need as much.' So they came to South Australia and argued that South Australia should have 100 gigalitres less and that South Australians should be paying for it through the desal plant, at 40 times the market value.

The government's own report into the Water for Fodder program has finally been released. Despite the fact that this place, the Senate, months earlier asked for the documentation to be tabled, the government refused—another sign that the government continue to cover up their stuff-ups time and time again. They refused to release that report. It did come out, finally. And what does it say? It says this program is a flop. They released it at the same time as the feasibility study into South Australia's desal plant. It turns out that that's a flop too.

So it's no wonder that we've got a disallowance motion before us today, because this government can't manage the Murray-Darling Basin. It's too busy filling the tanks and dams of its big corporate mates and friends of the National Party. Meanwhile, downstream communities and small family farms are left high and dry. It is no wonder that there are communities right through the Murray-Darling Basin who are turning their backs on the National Party. It is no wonder that the National Party are scrambling to try to work out why everybody's deserted them. It's because they have mismanaged the nation's biggest river system, year after year after year.

What do we know is coming next? There will be a water ministers council meeting in December, and we're going to hear New South Wales and Victoria, and probably Queensland as well, refuse again to find the remaining 450 gigalitres that is needed if we're to give this river a fighting chance of survival. We'll hear all over again that these state governments cannot get their houses in order to deliver the water. There'll be a push to blow out the time frame of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan—$13 billion down the drain.

The mismanagement, maladministration and stuff-ups in the Murray-Darling Basin that have been overseen by this government would be laughable if things weren't so sad. When the coalition came to power, the biggest mistake the Liberal Party made was to put the Nationals in charge of the water portfolio. We could all see it coming, we all knew it was a big mistake, yet what did Tony Abbott do? He handed the keys to the Murray-Darling Basin and the coffers of public money to Mr Barnaby Joyce. Where are we today? We're up the creek, high and dry, because Barnaby Joyce cannot be trusted, the National Party cannot be trusted and this government cannot be trusted with managing the nation's most important water supply. They certainly can't be trusted to look after the environment and environmental flows.

We will push through with this disallowance. For a South Australian senator it is the responsible thing to do. It shouldn't be left up to South Australia to carry the can because of the mismanagement of the federal Liberal-National party and the corruption and maladministration of the New South Wales, Queensland and Victorian state governments, who have done nothing to rectify this situation and make sure that the reforms science requires are implemented in full.