Murray-Darling Basin Plan

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (14:37): My question is to the Deputy Premier. Can the Deputy Premier update the house on responses to the new agreements to implement 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) (14:38): Of particular interest to me when contemplating agreeing to the new arrangement by which the commonwealth government will seek to modify the legislation governing the Murray-Darling Basin Plan through their parliament in order to facilitate not only a longer time, recognising that 10 years of inaction does cost time, but also crucially to change the way in which the 450 is able to be recovered by facilitating the possibility of having voluntary buybacks of water, rather than being restricted only to efficiency measure projects, was what scientists would think of the new proposal because, although community sentiment is of course extremely important and political sentiment is necessary when contemplating changing the law, what really matters is whether scientists believe that what we are doing is going to lead to a more sustainable basin.

So I was very pleased to see that the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, which I think everyone across the chamber would agree is a group of scientists of eminent reputation and understanding of the way in which water works, came out and welcomed the new agreement. They say:

We applaud the Federal Government for taking decisive steps to implement their election commitments to restore the health of the Murray and Darling River systems and deliver their obligations under national and international agreements.

They point out, crucially:

The Murray-Darling Basin is still over-extracted. The recovery of 3,200 GL/year in water for the environment under the Basin Plan is essential to maintain the health of these rivers and the people who rely on them.

As I have often said in media commentary, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is not about trying to have a political win for the sake of media. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is about the sustainability of a basin system so that we can continue to depend on it for primary production as well as for human settlement.

Interestingly, and I won't read all of this because it is of course publicly available, towards the end the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists does tackle this rather vexed question of the way in which buybacks can occur, because I recognise that there are concerns amongst irrigated communities about the way in which that might operate. I will just read briefly their quote on that:

We believe there are better ways to address socio-economic impacts on communities than through the current socio-economic test…

Just to interrupt briefly, that is of course the test that was agreed in 2018.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Chaffey! The Premier is called to order. The Deputy Premier has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The quote continues, 'which has been an ongoing barrier to water recovery'. So we accept that our current socio-economic test has been a barrier. The quote says:

We recommend that governments agree to provide a Regional Development Package to support communities adapt to a future with less water, address adverse third-party impacts, and help ensure the ongoing liveability, sustainability and resilience of rural and regional cities, townships, and communities.

I could not agree more with the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. Last week, I met with a group of irrigators from the South Australian Murray region in order to talk to them about the way in which we might work together to represent to the commonwealth government two things: first of all, how they might construct a voluntary buyback system so that it causes minimal, if any, impact on communities, so what kind of offer might be made, what percentage of any individual allocation might be taken up and generally to create a system—

The SPEAKER: The Deputy Premier's time has expired.