Ministerial Statement

Murray-Darling Basin Plan

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:03): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: On 24 July, the Four Corners program aired the alarming results of an investigation concerning the failure of New South Wales to comply with the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. The allegation that New South Wales had permitted the covert siphoning off of more than a billion litres of water earmarked for the environment to cotton farmers is incendiary, but only confirms our long-held suspicions that New South Wales is not committed to the plan.

Many believe these reports to be just the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, just today, we see new allegations that a New South Wales cotton farmer, who is also a major donor to the Nationals, has been using his clout to secure more water for his farm, in breach of existing regulations—again, at the expense of the health of the river. This matter is of the utmost seriousness. The response from the New South Wales government was to announce an internal inquiry. This is grossly inadequate.

An internal inquiry is far too narrow to determine whether there is material evidence of water being taken without legal authority. That internal inquiry will only look at allegations of water theft occurring over a four-day period in 2015, when in fact there are claims of systemic and long-term gaming of water in New South Wales. We believe that a judicial inquiry is the proper course in response to these allegations. The theft of more than a billion litres of water from the Murray-Darling river system, and allegations of Public Service corruption that potentially go all the way to the highest levels of the Department of Primary Industries, requires the highest level of scrutiny.

Those allegations deserve to be taken more seriously by the country's Deputy Prime Minister, a Deputy Prime Minister who was overheard recently telling farmers in a pub that he had no commitment to a healthy river beyond the water needed for his cotton and rice-growing supporters upstream. Barnaby Joyce has shown a total disregard for these serious allegations but, worse than that, he is personally playing a role in undermining the plan and the body set up to enforce that plan, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. Mr Joyce's appointment of former National and New South Wales Irrigators' Council representative, Ms Perin Davey, is a clearly calculated move to undermine the independence and expert nature of the authority. Ms Davey has already been reported as referring to the implementation of the basin plan as 'impossible'.

South Australia will continue to fight for the Murray. Shortly, I will give notice that tomorrow I will move a motion calling on the Prime Minister to commission a fully independent judicial inquiry into the allegations raised on Four Corners. It was encouraging to see that a broad cross-section of South Australian senators will unite when parliament resumes next week to apply further pressure on the Prime Minister to commission that inquiry. We call upon South Australian Liberals to put their state before their party and to pressure the Prime Minister to do the right thing, to do the fair thing and to ensure that South Australians get the water we have fought so hard to secure.