Senate debates

Wednesday, 23 June 2021

Bills

Water Legislation Amendment (Inspector-General of Water Compliance and Other Measures) Bill 2021; Second Reading

11:53 am

Photo of Rex PatrickRex Patrick (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the Water Legislation Amendment (Inspector-General of Water Compliance and Other Measures) Bill 2021. There has been a total distraction in the chamber in respect of the purpose of this bill because of the actions of the National Party, because of the weakness of the Prime Minister to control the new National Party—the new Joyce National Party that is so against the river that it's incomprehensible. The government need to recognise exactly what is going on here and they best not support the Nationals' amendments.

The Murray-Darling Basin is a national resource. It serves a number of states—Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria and South Australia. It is a national river system; it does not belong to any particular state. For a very long time, in fact since the Federation debates, we've talked about the river system. South Australia is very aware of its importance. We know—I know, being a senator from South Australia—that much of the South Australian population relies on the river. The people of Adelaide use it for drinking water, and people throughout regional South Australia, all the way through to places like Whyalla and Pirie, all rely on the Murray-Darling to supply their water.

The Murray-Darling resource must be managed effectively. It must be managed fairly. There are a number of stakeholders that have an interest in the river, including irrigators. I don't think anyone in this chamber is anti-irrigation. Stakeholders also include the environment, Indigenous people, tourism operators and a whole range of people who have an interest in the river. Everyone is appreciative of the balance and the need to assist all stakeholders, except the Nationals, who say this is only about irrigation. They cut their nose off in spite of their face by working to destroy a river. It's pretty simple: it's a river system that, if you extract too much from it, dries out and you don't have water flowing out of the Murray mouth. That causes all sorts of problems in terms of salt levels. And guess what? It's a pretty simple concept: rivers flow to the sea. This is just craziness.

If we go back to the history of the plan and how we looked at it, it was supposed to be developed—in fact, the law requires it to be developed—on the basis of best available science. When the plan was first proposed and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority did its work, we knew that in order to make the river sustainable we needed to reduce the water take, and we needed to reduce it by somewhere between 3,900 gigalitres and 7,600 gigalitres. They were the scientific numbers. Immediately, when that best available science came out, so too did the political interference, predominantly from the National Party—and indeed, I might add, from Troy Grant, who at the time was a member of the National Party, working against the best available science. Of course, he's going to go on to become the Inspector-General. Everyone's alarm bells ought to be ringing now in relation to that. We're seeing what the Nationals are doing today, and we've got a National who is now the acting Inspector-General. All of the events of the last 48 hours have put fear into my spine in relation to what is happening.

We were supposed to have between 3,900 and 7,600 gigalitres, but it got whittled down to 2,750 gigalitres, well below what was required for best available science. I know best available science is something that National parties aren't really interested in, but that's what happened: it went down to 2,750. As a result of that, in order for South Australia to protect its right and protect its people, agreement was reached for an additional 450 gigalitres of what is called upwater. If you look at the act, it specifically directs that, through section 86AA, at South Australian environmental sites. It's important.

What we're seeing here is the Nationals, who are not represented in South Australia—and it's understandable why they're not—trying to make a play. Understand what this is all about—it's about politics; it's about what happened over the last 48 hours. Barnaby Joyce—

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