RIVERINA Nationals MP Michael McCormack says the Murray Darling Basin Plan is an assault on regional Australia, that’s generated a “wealth” of fear and uncertainty and will cost good, hardworking country people “a wealth of money”.
It’s also an attack on the nation's farmers and “an attack on the nation itself”.
Mr McCormack expressed his anger during debate in the House of Representatives yesterday, on a disallowance motion he raised to prevent the basin plan from finally becoming law.
Another disallowance motion was raised in the Senate the previous day and was also overwhelmingly defeated with the government and Coalition voting together against the nine Green Senators.
Mr McCormack crossed the floor to vote against the plan along with Victorian Liberal Murray MP Sharman Stone, who seconded the motion, and NSW Liberal Hume MP Alby Schultz.
QLD Independent Bob Katter and Green Adam Bandt also voted against the plan which is underpinned by a baseline target of 2750 gigalitres in environmental water flows.
While Mr Katter and three Coalition MP’s were concerned the plan was taking too much water from rural communities and threatening the viability of primary producers and future of rural communities, the Greens’ disapproval was based on opposite concerns, fearing it won’t deliver enough water to sustain the environment and river health.
Mr McCormack said he was surprised Mr Schultz had also crossed the floor, which meant five MP’s voted for the motion and therefore forced a count.
“We didn’t ask anyone to vote with us like Peter Slipper or Craig Thomson or any other independents,” he said.
“But I was pleased that Alby supported us, for standing up for our principles, and said ‘I think what you’re doing is right’,” he said.
In speaking against the disallowance motion, Water Minister Tony Burke said there would never be a Basin Plan, if the current parliament didn’t do it.
He also praised the work of Independent MP Tony Windsor’s Regional Australia Committee, which helped overcome extreme opposition to the Basin Plan by consulting with regional communities, after the Guide to the draft basin plan was released in October 2010 and torched at public consultation meetings.
In speaking against the disallowance motion, Mr Windsor said the Basin Plan got off to a rocky start, when the whole debate became “about the number” after the Guide was released.
He said for the past two years, farmers have feared the “filthy Labor government” was going to take water from them – but that hasn’t occurred.
Mr Windsor said the hung parliament - of which he holds the balance of power with another rural Independent MP Rob Oakeshott - had forced the government to look closer at the Basin Plan and change the focus away from farmers, to also improve how environmental water is managed.
He said a majority government would have taken a more city-based approach to solve environmental issues by rushing through water buybacks, to the detriment of rural communities.
Mr Windsor said his Committee process engaged with rural communities in a bi-partisan way, to create better understanding that the government wasn’t taking away their water.
It also forced the government to focus more on environmental works and measures and on-farm infrastructure projects, to achieve water savings and move away from non-strategic water buybacks.
After the final vote was counted, Minister Burke walked across the chamber to shake hands with Mr Windsor.
But the plan failed to appease Mr McCormack who said the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area was in the heart of his electorate and one of the most productive regions of Australia.
He said the annual value of farm-gate productions is in excess of half a billion dollars each year.
“My electorate is an electorate built on irrigation,” he said.
“My community is a community built on irrigation.
“The people who entrusted me to represent them are reliant on irrigation.
“It is simply not possible for me to support, encourage or allow to pass without comment a Basin Plan which will so materially affect the people who placed their trust in me.
“This plan says that my electorate must have hundreds of billions of litres of its lifeblood taken away from it.
“I cannot tell you how many hundreds of billions of litres, because this plan does not specify that.
“It merely says that my electorate must suffer an indeterminate amount of pain.”
Mr McCormack said the plan should have been sensible about how it obtained water and focused on maintaining the productivity of our regions.
He said it should have been about the balance between production of food and fibre and ensuring the sustainability of the environment, “But it is not”.
He said it also needed to have a cap on buybacks but “It does not”.
“The failure of the minister to pay heed to social and economic devastation leaves me with no choice but to disapprove of this plan,” he said.
“The minister may believe that the impacts are far from his inner-Sydney electorate.
“They are not distant to me.
“They are not distant to my electorate.”
In raising the disallowance motion in the Senate, Greens Basin spokesperson and SA Senator Sarah Hanson Young said the basin plan was meant to be the blueprint for how the river system will be managed for the next 20 years.
“Yet this plan does not even include the impacts of climate change or how to deal with the system in an increasingly drying environment,” she said.
