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- 2 September 2003
Council of Australian Governments Water Agreement
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Page: 2952
Mr BLACK: I direct my question without notice to the Minister for Infrastructure and Planning, and Minister for Natural Resources. What is the Government's response to the Council of Australian Governments [COAG] agreement on water?
Mr KNOWLES: I thank the honourable member for Murray-Darling for his question and I acknowledge his longstanding interest in water. Out west, of course, where there has been a little bit of rain recently, the COAG agreement on water last Friday was particularly important. It is fair to say that it was an agreement that has been welcomed by most of the key players in the debate right around the nation, which is in sharp contrast to health where the Prime Minister and the Commonwealth Government abrogated their responsibility to properly fund the health system. On Friday, we managed to get a collaborative approach that will see the first good step in water reform around this nation. As one example, Murray Irrigation described the agreement last Friday as an agreement that would bring new confidence for rural communities.
New South Wales Farmers identified it as a first and historic agreement, and as welcome recognition for farmers and the environment. In Gwydir, in John Anderson's electorate—where there are enormous problems with historic overallocations, going right back to the National Party priming the pump up there in the 1980s—the Gwydir Irrigators Association is describing the agreement as a decision that would give irrigators continued confidence to invest; whilst the Wentworth group welcomed the decision as providing real money for real water. That is $500 million of real money that is now available to start to provide for healthy rivers and strong regional and rural economies. There are many of those sorts of testimonials, yet the Leader of the National Party still felt the need to issue a press release acknowledging the value of last Friday's deal. Now, in a search for relevance—
Mr Stoner: Thank goodness for John Anderson.
Mr KNOWLES: I join with the Leader of the National Party. In the context of the butcher and the block, thank God for John Anderson. He is much better than Kay Patterson, because he is a leader who is willing to take the bat to the Prime Minister and Peter Costello and collaboratively work with State government agencies and State governments to produce a $500 million plan. In contrast, Kay Patterson, the Federal health Minister—who was made to look good by the former shadow Minister for Health in this place—could not deliver one zack and denies the reality of what is happening with national health in this country.
As my colleague the Minister for Health said, there are declining rates of bulk billing, continued overburdening of public health facilities, a decline in aged care services, and a collapse in private health insurance, but the Federal Government does not put one cent into health. I agree with the Leader of the National Party: Thank goodness for John Anderson, because he has had a lonely time in Canberra. I am very appreciative of his remarks in response to my efforts over recent times. There have been very strong levels of support for the efforts put in over recent months and the results we achieved within COAG last Friday.
The COAG agreement is an important first step that has been born out of the collaborative relationship that has been developed in this State between John Anderson and me over recent months. I also acknowledge the efforts of John Wade, my Victorian counterpart, in working together to sort out this national conundrum of how to reconcile the need for healthy rivers, a sustained environment and sustained rural economies whilst at the same time underpinning the viability, productivity and growth potential of rural economies, wherever they might be. Over the next five years the Commonwealth will contribute $200 million, New South Wales and Victoria $115 million each, South Australia $65 million, and the Australian Capital Territory $5 million—a total of $500 million.
Whilst the focus of COAG was on the Murray-Darling system, decisions on water access licences, water markets and water pricing, urban water issues and water for the environment, as well as opportunities for infrastructure development, all established a strong foundation for a consistent national plan for water for the first time in our nation's history. This is the first time that governments have signed off on a funded plan to move water issues ahead for a country. New South Wales and the Commonwealth, continuing to work together, will capitalise on Friday's result.
I have already discussed with John Anderson the potential opportunities that this new money provides. We will meet in the near future to discuss the details. For example, New South Wales will now move to align our plans with the COAG agreement to define water access licences in perpetuity. This will provide greater certainty and security for water users, especially when negotiating loans and other finance arrangements with the banking sector. Equally, we will readdress the roll-forward period for water licences to give greater certainty to the farming sector, whilst ensuring a progressive path towards increasing the health of our rivers. We will support nationally functioning water markets. We will not support water barons who lock up water licences in bank vaults in Zurich. Water must be used for productive purposes.
Equally, under the broad new COAG framework I believe there is real potential to explore a clear role for the States and the Commonwealth in how the $500 million should be best used. For example, it may be appropriate for the States' contributions to be targeted towards infrastructure projects to avoid waste through evaporation and degradation of the environment through salinity. Done properly, such expenditure would boost the amount of water presently available for irrigators and the environment alike, and allow further localised investment in water management, savings and trading.
Equally, the Commonwealth, whose traditional role lies in industry and structural adjustment assistance, could focus its efforts on industry support, the establishment of water markets—particularly as they relate to a national water market; crossing State boundaries, where exchange rates will have to be established—and support for the areas of our nation in which the overallocation of water continues to be a problem. The Deputy Prime Minister's electorate of Gwydir is a classic example. I foreshadow to farming communities and the Commonwealth Government that if this could be an agreed position, it would be appropriate in this State to reconsider how we deal with active and inactive water licence holders. In other words, if funds from the Commonwealth could be targeted for the purpose, it may be appropriate to acquire inactive licences and underpin the productive capacity of those in our rural communities who have invested large sums in highly efficient water management systems.
In the context of last Friday's historic agreement, it is essential that efforts be focused on maintaining the economic viability of active and efficient water users who underpin regional economies and provide a capacity as a nation to invest in environmental rehabilitation and renewal. This is all about getting the balance right. We cannot have a productive agricultural sector without healthy rivers, and we cannot have healthy rivers without strong regional economies to generate the funds necessary to invest in them. The $500 million and the decisions coming out of last Friday's COAG meeting give us a strong starting point to move forward, as does the proposal to appoint the Rt Hon. Ian Sinclair as the new President of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission. My hope is that Ian will accept the position. If he does, he will play a fundamental role in the success of our collective efforts over the next five years.
As I said at the outset, I extend my congratulations to John Anderson on the result he has produced within his Government. It must have been difficult trying to wangle money out of John Howard and Peter Costello. He has had that win, but we have achieved this win together, for the benefit of all our communities. As members opposite know, if you go to the bush you understand that people do not want politics, they want results—they want solutions. We achieved a $500 million exclamation mark for water last Friday, yet there is absolutely zip from the Commonwealth Government for health. On the same agenda, Howard and Patterson will not even talk to the States and Territories about health. It demonstrates just how you succeed when you work together.
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