Murray-Darling Basin Plan

Ms HUTCHESSON (Waite) (14:47): My question is to the Minister for Climate, Environment and Water. Can the minister update the house on the government's commitment towards the implementation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (14:47): Yes, I can. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan has been lingering as an uncompleted project, almost at times a vanishing dream, for south-eastern Australia to finally see a healthy, working Murray-Darling Basin. We were promised collectively, we signed up to, a 3,200 gigalitre plan, and at the moment we have 2,100 gigalitres.

The gap is in two parts. There are 605 gigalitres set aside for projects that are not delivering water but are regarded as having the environmental equivalence of water. That is controversial, understandably, and there have been a number of scientists who have questioned whether in fact one can have such an equivalence, but in any case we are very far from seeing those projects being completed and, with the best will in the world, probably about 300 gigalitres of that has been delivered.

Then we have this lingering sore of the 450 gigalitres, of which at the moment we have 4.5 gigalitres, and in fact that took 10 years. It has been estimated, using maths, that at that rate it would take a thousand years for us to get to the 450 gigalitres—inching along doesn't even begin to describe it.

What we need, of course, is to deliver the plan. What we can't accept is that not delivering the plan is acceptable—we cannot—because if we don't have a healthy working basin, then we don't have ongoing primary production in the Murray-Darling Basin. We don't have communities that are able to be dependent on the Murray-Darling Basin, because we know that not only do we have climate change bearing down on us, overall hotter and drier, but also, as we emerge from these three very wet years, that we are likely to be tipping into warmer years. You would expect that; we are Australia. Droughts happen, and they happen more with climate change. So we cannot accept a situation where we allow bickering between states to result in not delivering the plan.

What are the options for delivering? We can have water efficiency projects: thus far, they have delivered 4.5 gigalitres and there is some more—I am going to use the terrible expression again—in the pipeline. There is more coming, about another 10 or 12 gigalitres. You can do water efficiency projects; they can deliver.

You can buy back: the vast majority of the 2,100 gigalitres has been voluntarily purchased from willing sellers, and there is no evidence that voluntary buybacks cause socio-economic destruction. In fact, what happens is that the money is spent in the community.

Mr Pederick interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hammond!

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: The money spent in the community by people who remain—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: Well, I am sure you've got some brilliant ideas for how you are going to deliver the water, but this is how the water is being delivered to date.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Deputy Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: In the nine years—which felt like about 18—of the Morrison government, when the water portfolio was handed over to the National Party wholesale, and not even just to the National Party but, for a period, to Barnaby Joyce, we saw nothing. We saw hostility and deliberate decisions not to act. That's over now.

The federal government has opened up, for five weeks, consultation from communities to say how they would like to see that water delivered. I am going to be interested to see what the other side of politics suggests, because I hear every criticism of every idea but I don't hear anything that they think is a good idea. I have never heard one suggestion from the other side that would deliver one gigalitre of water, only criticism and acceptance of a drying of our basin.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hammond is on a final warning.