I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

  (i) on 14 September 2019, the National Party voted to oppose the recovery of 450 gigalitres (GL) of water under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan,

  (ii) the Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management (Mr Littleproud) has previously promised this water would be returned to the river in full, and

  (iii) the 450 GL was negotiated by South Australia as an essential part of delivering the Plan in full;

(b) condemns the National Party for opposing the delivery of 450 GL of environmental water to the Murray-Darling river system; and

(c) supports the delivery of the agreed 450 GL of water to the Murray- Darling, as required under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Leave is granted for one minute.

The government recognises the difficult times farmers, irrigators and communities are facing during drought. In December 2018 the government, with the agreement of all Murray-Darling Basin water ministers, delivered a social and economic neutrality test. The test ensures that the delivery of additional water for the environment will have no social or economic impacts on farmers and communities. The coalition government will continue to fully implement the Basin Plan while ensuring that delivery of additional water for the environment does not hurt basin communities.

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Leave is granted for one minute.

In southern New South Wales we have a farmer growing oats who usually expects six tonnes per hectare if irrigated. He's now harvesting 0.5 of a tonne per hectare. In another paddock, for hay, he typically has 130 semitrailer loads of hay. He'll be lucky to get seven this time. He has no water allocation, yet there are environmental flows flooding the back of his farm. These environmental flows had happened four of the last six years, and that's unnatural. We request that this not be passed.

Question agreed to.