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

My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Water, Senator Watt. The government continues to spend billions on water buybacks which rip the economic rug out from underneath communities in our nation's food bowl. These buybacks are occurring despite the Commonwealth having more water than it knows what to do with. The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, the CEWH, is the largest holder of water in the country by far, and it has rarely if ever used all the water it's allocated in a given year. This week, the Liberal and National parties introduced a bill to conduct a commission of inquiry into the environmental water use in the basin. You dismissed this, saying the call for the commission of inquiry would be pulling apart the plan. Why won't the government support a proper inquiry, which farmers are calling for, into how taxpayer money and environmental water are being used?