THIS week Water Minister Tanya Plibersek’s amendments to the Water Act and Murray-Darling Basin Plan were considered in two days of Senate committee hearings in Canberra.
It is a great shame the committee only held hearings in Canberra, because Labor, Greens and their Senate crossbench allies refused to take verbal evidence beyond the nation’s capital.
This is why the Coalition, with basin MPs and the Coalition’s Agriculture Backbench Committee, visited the basin regions and held public meetings with stakeholders in river communities like Mildura, Renmark and Shepparton.
Those with skin in the game voiced their fears about the return of buybacks to recover the basin plan’s water targets.
The committee is due to report to the Senate by Wednesday. Then the Senate decides the plan’s fate by the end of the month.
In government, the Coalition worked with the states to deliver water-saving measures in a bipartisan way and put a special test in place to ensure no negative social or economic outcomes would occur for communities.
Under Labor’s amendments, not only is the test gone, but Labor has cancelled working with all basin states, progressing buybacks without the support of the Victorian Government.
This week, Ms Plibersek claimed her open tender for buybacks had twice the level of interest the government needed, through six basin valleys in New South Wales and Queensland. What price was the Albanese government offering?
Transparency is unlikely but with an expected drier season where water prices trend higher – it is no surprise that “willing sellers” facing a range of business stressors have shown interest.
The Coalition holds the seats in the food-producing part of the basin and know that buybacks hurt our communities.
It’s a message my Nationals colleagues and I are taking to Canberra alongside producers from across the basin.
Next sitting week we will serve up the food and wines from the basin that Labor’s buybacks put at risk, and hopefully also serve our Senate colleagues some food for thought.
