Perin Davey (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister representing the Minister for the Environment and Water, Senator Wong. I want to acknowledge there are food processors and producers in the house today for the 'taste of the basin' event tonight. Dairy farmer Malcolm Holm told a recent Senate inquiry that, if he sold his water and converted his farm to dryland, he would immediately lay off 12 staff that he currently employs. Minister, can you tell the chamber what modelling the government has done to benchmark the impact of its water buyback policies on regional communities to ensure it does not result in job losses and drive up the cost of living for everyday Australian households?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Davey. I also briefly dropped in at an event yesterday—

Perin Davey (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So did I.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You did too, so you would know that there were also farmers and agricultural producers as well as environmentalists and community people who are supportive of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. I would also make, if I can, a shout-out to Henry Jones's wife, Gloria, who was there cooking the mullet. Henry, of course, is now—

Honourable senators interjecting—

Coorong mullet, I should say. Henry was a fisherman who was a strong advocate for reform of the basin—a very decent man who spent a lot of his life working on these issues.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, please resume your seat. Senator Davey?

Perin Davey (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

While I appreciate the minister outlining what happened yesterday—it was delicious mullet—I would like to bring her to the point of the question. She's got a minute left to tell us what modelling the government has done.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. The minister is being relevant. We are talking about the Murray-Darling Basin, as I understand it. Minister, please continue.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. How is this relevant? President, I know you're from WA, but this is actually about the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. That's how it's relevant. I know that the National Party doesn't support the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. I know that they say that they really don't want to support it, and they won't recognise the enormous amount of environmental and economic work that was done for the plan. Your government adopted the plan, but the problem was you adopted it so that Senator Birmingham and Senator Ruston could go to Adelaide and say, 'We've got the Murray-Darling Basin Plan,' but you just made sure you never did anything. So you actually didn't deliver, almost, any water. The great political solution for the coalition and their enormous division on water policy was that you adopt a plan but you don't actually do anything about it. Well, that isn't the approach we'll be taking, because we recognise, as Malcolm Turnbull did, that you have to have reform in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Davey, first supplementary?

Perin Davey (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the same hearings the chairman of SPC Global, Mr Hussein Hani Rifai, spoke of the risk to that company and its ability to compete against cheap imports. Minister, will you guarantee that none of the businesses, farms or manufacturers that Australia relies on for food and fibre will go bust or lay off workers as a result of Labor's buyback policies? Have you done the modelling?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Again, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was subject to an enormous amount of research and consultation, and the senator knows that.

The reality, though, is that none of that will change the minds of the National Party. I will just remind you, Senator, of some of your colleagues, Senator Ruston said:

We will not stop trying, because we are committed to the delivery of the plan.

Senator Birmingham said:

… the government stands resolute in its support … of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan … in full and on time.

Mr Stevens and Senator McLachlan said that they supported buybacks. So what is your policy? In government, we know what it is. What is it in opposition? What is the Dutton opposition's policy on the Murray-Darling Basin?

Perin Davey (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Mayor of Balonne Shire in Queensland, Sam O'Toole, spoke of the impact of the last round of untargeted open-slather buybacks. Minister, why is the government removing the Labor Party's social and economic impact test from the plan for water recovery that will impact communities like Balonne Shire which are so reliant on agriculture?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government is aware that this is a difficult issue. We understand. I understand personally. I've been the water minister, and I've travelled a lot through the basin. I understand that this is a really challenging issue for many communities, but, as I've said to them, I'm not going to be one of those politicians that turn up and pretend that things can go on as they were, because they can't. I know that Mr Joyce and the National Party want to keep telling people that nothing needs to change, but we know that is not the case. The choice is that either you are upfront with people about what needs to happen or you keep pretending to them that nothing needs to change, and we know that's not true.

The government will put in place appropriate structural adjustment. The government will put in place appropriate consultation. But I do say to you again: let's not pretend after so many years that things can go on without any change. (Time expired)