THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER

Subjects: Passage of the Restoring Our Rivers Bill.

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Well, I'm very pleased that today our Restoring Our Rivers Bill has passed through the Senate. Before the last election, the Australian Labor Party made a commitment to deliver the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in full. The Restoring Our Rivers Bill does just that. It gives more time, more money, more options and more accountability to make sure that this vital environmental legislation actually achieves what we set out to do.

We know that more than three million Australians rely on the Murray-Darling Basin system for their drinking water. Agriculture, industry, towns, communities all rely on this vital river system. And of course, our precious environment relies on seeing enough water in our rivers, particularly as the dry times approach once again.

We know that the Liberals and the Nationals, despite saying that they support the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, have done everything they can over the last decade to sabotage it - to make sure that it's never delivered. In fact, in my first nine months as Water Minister, I delivered more additional environmental water than the Liberals and Nationals did in nine years. So, I want to say that today is an absolutely amazing day. This is an amazing day for the Australian environment, for the million square kilometres of inland Australia that these rivers sustain. I want to thank the Senate for passing this important legislation and particularly thank the Crossbenchers who worked so cooperatively with Labor to get this done. To all of my Murray-Darling Basin colleagues here, thank you for the incredible work that you've done over such a long period of time to highlight the risks of failing to deliver this plan and to celebrate the importance of delivering the plan in full for our communities and for the environment. Penny, did you want to say a few words?

PENNY WONG, MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA: Thank you. I just want to say I was Water Minister and I had the Millennium Drought.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: You didn't make it rain!

MINISTER WONG: And Tanya as Water Minister, she makes it rain. So, she's obviously doing better. Look, I've had a lot of press conferences over many years on the Murray-Darling Basin because as a South Australian, we're at the end of the river where river health is not just an issue we care about, but it's central to our livelihoods and it's central to Adelaide and to the people of South Australia. And well, while I was Water Minister, I think I purchased almost 1000 gigalitres of water to try and restore under this plan the Murray to health. And as Tanya has said many times, the Coalition in their nine years delivered two out of 450 gigalitres. Now, that is nothing short of sabotage. And the thing is that they haven't actually learned, because what we saw again in the Senate today is the same sort of sabotage from the National Party, still doing what Barnaby Joyce does best, which is to try and oppose any reform on any restoration of the Basin to health. But what was worse, is they were supported in that continued sabotage by senior Liberals from South Australia, like Simon Birmingham and Anne Ruston. And what I'd say is this: we have to work to make sure we deliver this plan. It was the last Labor government that worked so hard on this. And this, this Labor government, this Parliament, can actually deliver it. So I thank the Senators, as Tanya said, and good luck to Tanya for getting the water and well done on making it rain.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Do we have any questions?

JOURNALIST: Minister, how soon do you think buybacks will begin?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, as you know, we're already in the market for voluntary water purchase for another part of the plan and we will soon be concluding that first tender. We will - as I've said multiple times, voluntary water purchase is only one planned part of this plan. Voluntary water purchase is one part of this plan. We'll be continuing to work with states and territories on vital water saving infrastructure, we'll continue to look at other options for recovering water, but we will - we have always said, voluntary water purchase will be part of delivering the plan and we will look at that next year.

JOURNALIST: Minister, what is your message to the Victorian Government?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I would say to the Victorian Government that the door is still open. It makes sense for the Victorian Government to join with the other basin states and ACT to deliver on this plan. The legislation has passed through the Senate, it will shortly pass through the Parliament. What's on offer to the Victorian Government is hundreds of millions of dollars of support and if they don't sign up, we're likely to see more water recovery through voluntary water purchase, not less in Victoria. Their position just doesn't make sense.

JOURNALIST: Minister, obviously the environmental outcomes of the basin plan have not been met and that's been pretty clear. But are you confident that the changes in removing the cap on buybacks and the sort of socioeconomic test, what consultation have you done with irrigators to make sure that this won’t impact Australia’s agriculture?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, we've got great analysis from economists like Sarah Wheeler that show that a lot of the claims about the impacts of voluntary water purchase have been overstated and are inaccurate. Of course, there's multiple things that affect what's happening in the agriculture sector. The price of fuel, the shortage of labour, what's happening with our trading partners, the weather, whether we're in a drought or flood - all of these have an impact. And that's why my colleague, Senator Murray Watt, the agriculture minister, is working so closely with the agriculture sector to make sure that we have a strong and productive and profitable agriculture sector here in Australia. I'd also say about this, that the National Party keep talking about how terrible buybacks are. More water in Australia is owned by foreign companies than is held by the Commonwealth Environment Water Holder. The National Party are fine with that. They're fine with the fact that mining companies are buying up water rights and taking them out of agriculture.

Oh, we’ve got a division. The only people they don't want to buy - the only people that they don't want to buy water, are the Australian Government. Got to go. Thanks, everyone.

ENDS

Authorised by Senator the Hon Penny Wong, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Australia.