Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill.

Leave granted.

I table an explanatory memorandum and seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

This Bill establishes a Commission of Inquiry into the behaviour, practices and performance of the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder who is the entity responsible for managing billions of dollars' worth of environmental water under the Murray-Darling Basin framework.

At its heart, this Bill is about accountability. When you are managing one of the most valuable and contested resources in this country, our water, you should be able to demonstrate clearly, transparently and honestly what you are doing, why you are doing it and whether it is working.

The Communities of Albury-Wodonga, Mildura, Renmark and many others across the Murray-Darling Basin are asking these questions and they are not being answered.

Regional communities are watching as environmental watering is being suspended due to regulatory failures, precious water is taken out of productive system and billions of dollars is being spent on water recovery.

The people of Deniliquin, Bourke, Finley want to know what is the benefit? Where is the transparency? Does this system actually deliver for the environment they live in and love?

Water is being removed from our irrigation regions and irrigators are told it is for environmental benefit, however they are not seeing clear evidence that those outcomes are being delivered. This Bill seeks to address this issue.

This Bill is not asking whether environmental water should exist, it should. We need to know whether environmental water is being effectively and transparently managed in a way that actually delivers outcomes.

The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder sits at the centre of this system.

It controls vast volumes of water and makes decisions that affect river systems, wetlands, farms and communities, however there is limited visibility over how those decisions are made. Limited transparency over the trade-offs involved and limited accountability for the outcomes. This is occurring under the current Government's watch.

Labor has been quick to pursue more water buybacks, more recovery and more centralised control, they have been far less interested in answering "Is the water we already hold being used properly?" This is a simple question, without a simple answer and we owe it to our communities that rely on the Murray-Darling Basin an answer.

This Bill says that question must be answered by establishing a Commission of Inquiry with the powers to do it. It has the power to compel evidence, to require documents and examine decisions and outcomes in detail.

Now, some will say why not a Royal Commission? A Royal Commission depends on the Government. This Commission of Inquiry depends on the Parliament.

When the Government refuses to act, the Parliament must step in.

These communities deserve a Royal Commission. Let's not pretend they don't. What they don't deserve is a Commission controlled by a Labor Government that does not have any respect for these communities and their concerns. A Labor Government that appoints an Independent Reviewer to lead the Water Review Act on 5 March 2026 to manage "…Australia's largest water resource—the Murray-Darling Basin—in the national interest, as well as for providing information on national water resources." Two weeks later they give her a second job overseeing Australia's current national fuel crisis. Water and fuel—two national crisis issues getting part time attention from this Labor Government.

This Commission of Inquiry is important as we cannot allow the terms of reference to be dictated by a Labor Government who voted to remove the dedicated "Water Day" at Senate Estimates and cancels the appearances of the water agencies due to lack of time and quite frankly, what seems like a lack of interest. Labor's own comments on water at Estimates were they "just became more and more irrelevant through that time, because we didn't have the right people turning up."

A Commission of Inquiry will ensure we have the right people turning up. These issues have never been more relevant as we approach the negotiations of Murray Darling Basin plan 2.

A Commission of Inquiry is practical action for communities who are exhausted from "consultation fatigue". It's a Commission with power, with intent and focus.

Communities put forward submissions to inquiries begging the Labor Government to stop water buybacks, stop over-regulating their water, stop flooding waterways with environmental water flows, or stopping flows. Communities in drought, patiently waiting for the environmental flows to be released so they can have water for crops and stock. Marshes drying up as the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder suspends flows and ecosystems dry up.

Our people of the Murray-Darling Basin are begging to be allowed to farm and care for their land as they have for generations, only to be told the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder knows better—but these communities are telling us—it is not better.

They want scrutiny. Local Councils, industry groups, irrigators, horticulturalists, the local businesses who rely on the health and vitality of the Murray-Darling Basin to sustain their economies.

This Commission of Inquiry is not an attack on environmental protections. If environmental water is not delivering environmental outcomes, then the system is failing both the environment and it's the Murray-Darling Basin communities who are being asked to carry the cost. This Bill recognises the greatest threat to environmental protection is not scrutiny, it is a lack of accountability. It is billions of dollars of water being managed without clear evidence of impact and the growing loss of confidence in the institutions responsible for delivering it.

This Bill provides a practical, targeted and proportionate way forward by focusing on the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder.

This Commission of Inquiry will focus on outcomes, on restoring trust, because without trust the Basin Plan cannot succeed. We want to see the system working—for the environment, for our regional communities and for the future of the Basin.

In electorates like Farrer, these issues are front and centre and the people of Farrer, and all the other electorates who rely on the Murray-Darling Basin, deserve transparency and answers.

Our regional communities deserve to know the water that is taken from their regions is delivering the outcomes they have been promised and we want to provide those answers.

This Bill will ensure environmental water policy in this country is not just well intentioned, it is actually effective.

I commend the Bill to the Senate.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.