Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

tor GROGAN () (): I rise to speak about the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Last month, the Albanese government announced that we would deliver the plan in full. There are many here who may remember that we've been saying since 2012, when the plan was first signed, that it would be delivered in full and on time. Obviously, Labor hasn't had much of that period from 2012 to today in government to be able to influence that—other than for fierce, fierce advocacy, particularly from my own state of South Australia, for that water.

Rather, what we've seen since 2012 was those opposite—the Liberal Party and the National Party, those who make up the coalition government—delivering very, very little. In fact, what they did deliver was two gigalitres out of the 450 gigalitres of environmental water promised: two out of 450. That's atrocious! Yet throughout that whole time, they were busy saying: 'Yes, we're on this. We've got this; we're going to deliver this.' But they did not. Since being returned to government in May last year, the Albanese Labor government has added another 24 gigs onto that. That's in less than one year, when those opposite could only deliver two gigalitres.

I'm being quite laboured in making this point because we're about to go into another legislative debate about the Murray-Darling Basin. That will be about how we make up for the nine years of neglect and gross mismanagement by those opposite in the Murray-Darling Basin. By the end of their term in government, it had just ground to a complete halt—not that there was a lot going on for the duration of their nine years in government. We'll enter into this new debate about amending the plan so that we can actually deliver what was agreed to be delivered. That debate is coming to this chamber and I'm deeply concerned about some of the early conversations, some of the early soap boxing, that has occurred.

South Australia, obviously, is at the bottom of the river, and we have advocated so strongly from South Australia for so many years about this. All I can do is urge people in this place to get on board; to remember why we put the basin plan in place in the first place and to think about the health of the river. That's because the health of the river is critical to the health of our agricultural sector. It's critical that the river system stay healthy; it's critical that we have enough water in the system all the way up and down the system to make sure that we can grow the food that we need, that our agricultural sector is supported and that our environment is supported. So often in this place, those two things are decoupled.

Those opposite talk about how protecting the health of the river will kill agriculture. It won't. Protecting the health of the river is what will ensure that agriculture can flourish for years and years into the future. The more we trash that system, the less sustainable our agricultural sector will be. Protecting that river is what Labor has stood for since 2012, and for years before that, along with protecting the Basin Plan and desperately looking to deliver that plan in full using the scientific evidence, not soapboxing, campaigning bunkum. We need to ensure that this plan is delivered. The on-time bit was squandered by those opposite, but Labor can and will still deliver the in-full bit.