Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak to the Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill 2023. I first want to start by acknowledging, as Senator Shoebridge just did, the amazing contribution of my colleague, Senator Hanson-Young, who sits in front of me, and associate myself not only with her comments but also with my colleague, Senator Shoebridge.

The fact is that millions of people rely on the Murray-Darling. Without water flowing through these rivers that make up a huge river system—the largest and most complex in the country, in fact—ecosystems will die, jobs will be lost and entire communities will suffer. The Murray-Darling spans five separate jurisdictions in this country: South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, the ACT and Queensland. It covers an area of one million square kilometres. That's the size of Spain and France combined, so you can just imagine how enormous that is. It is home to six internationally significant wetlands, 35 endangered species and over 120 species of waterbird. This is all at risk because of poor management and overextraction. We need more water flowing through the Murray, not less. Otherwise, we will see more mass fish kills, blue-green algal blooms and degradation of flood plains and delicate wetland systems.

We over here in the Greens will not sit back and just allow this to happen. It's happened on the watch of this government and previous governments that have been administering the Basin Plan, and this is why our colleagues—particularly Senator Hanson-Young—have worked to improve this bill. The win that the Greens have secured will guarantee those environmental flows across the basin, close the loopholes in the plan to increase transparency and accountability and deliver money for First Nations communities in the basin, as well as acknowledging the important connection. While I was in my office, I listened to Senator Roberts talk about First Nations people's connection, but it's also their rights, interests and values that are connected, not just to the river systems but also to the basin.

Just last sitting, I stood in this place and talked about the importance of water to First Nations people. This was when we were debating the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Expanding the Water Trigger) Bill 2023, Senator Hanson-Young's private senator's bill. I spoke about how water was life for First Nations people. It is an intrinsic part of our culture and the vitality and resilience of my people. I spoke about how native title very intentionally excluded our water rights, and I spoke about how it's our birthright to continue to fight for and protect water in our country.

In this debate, senators have spoken a lot about environmental flows and how we can ensure that there's sufficient environmental flow through the Murray-Darling to keep it alive and healthy, which we absolutely need to do. I absolutely concur with those comments. However, the other aspect to this is the importance of cultural flows. Cultural flows relate to sufficient water flows for activities such as fishing, hunting, ceremony and harvesting, as well as preserving and protecting ancient burial grounds, songlines, scar trees and camp sites. There are over 40 First Nations nations across the basin that rely on the Murray-Darling, and they've done so for tens of thousands of years. These nations know the river, they know the basin and they know how to use it sustainably. The Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations, or MLDRIN, whom I had the pleasure of speaking to last week, represent some of these nations and have long called for First Nations justice in the Murray-Darling Basin. I want to acknowledge their very strong advocacy in this space. MLDRIN strongly endorsed an open letter from legal practitioners and academics which stated that the bill in its original form failed to address the rights and interests of the nations across the basin and was in fact inconsistent with the rights and principles contained in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This framework systematically excluded and discriminated against First Nations people and deprived these communities of the opportunity to manage the river and contribute to its health. Environmental flows keep the river alive. Cultural flows keep our culture alive. A healthy river is directly linked to First Nations people being able to use the river to maintain cultural practices. This, in turn, is directly linked to maintaining our identity, wellbeing, capacity-building and intergenerational teachings of our people. The Murray-Darling is a topical example at the moment, but it also applies to many river and freshwater systems right across this country. This is why it's so important that there is funding set aside for First Nations water rights, that there is a framework to use it effectively and that that money is actually delivered and spent where it should be, because that's what self-determination looks like in this country.

In 2018 the previous government committed $40 million to establish and support First Nations investment in cultural and economic water entitlements and associated activities within the basin. The current government recommitted to this, and yet this money has not been spent. The environment minister admitted back in August that there's been very little work done about how this might happen, due to the fact there was no mechanism for allocating that water. If that weren't bad enough, the $40 million was nothing compared to the estimated value of water entitlements in the southern basin, which a report from earlier this year valued at $32.3 billion. Forty million dollars is just 0.1 per cent of that. I'm appalled, but I'm not actually surprised, that this government, alongside that former government, thought that that's all that black fellas were worth in this country—0.1 per cent.

In fact, in August, when the new agreement regarding the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was announced, there was no mention of water for First Nations people. First Nations people in the Murray have been short-changed again. They were overlooked in the original Murray-Darling Basin Plan in 2012. They were strung along with $40 million that never came, and they were overlooked in the revised Murray-Darling Basin Plan this year.

As I mentioned earlier in my speech, one of the wins the Greens have secured in this amendment is to the objects of the act, which is long overdue and will finally acknowledge—finally—the connection, rights, interests and values of the First Peoples that have called the Murray-Darling Basin home for tens of thousands of years. Another win that wouldn't have happened without the Greens is the increase from $40 million to $100 million for First Nations water and for the Aboriginal Water Entitlements Program to reflect the loss of value. That $40 million was never, never delivered to them. But we cannot let it only be about money that was promised before. You can bet that we will keep a very, very close eye on this to ensure that the money is being spent and delivered and that the government is talking to the right people—people like those in MLDRIN—when establishing this framework of how this money will be allocated and spent.

The Greens have significantly improved this bill, and it's a win for the Murray. It's a win for First Nations water rights in this country. There's still a long way to go before First Nations connections and rights to water are upheld in the same regard as our connection and our rights to land are, but I believe this is a step in the right direction. This signals to traditional owners across the country that the Greens are in fact listening. We will use our power on the crossbench here to fight for your rights and to ensure that this government is forced to acknowledge those connections, rights, interests and values of First Peoples in the basin and that it doesn't, as Senator Shoebridge already alluded to, just appear as nice words in a press conference or a media release, but that it actually comes to life through legislation in this place, and the other, to ensure the delivery, accountability and transparency that First Peoples in this country deserve. Thank you.