Tuesday, 3 March 2020

Responses

Ms NEVILLE (Bellarine—Minister for Water, Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (19:21): I know that we also write a response to members, and as much as I could speak about water for a fair bit of time, I will try and be brief in my response and the member for Ovens Valley can get a more detailed written response.

Firstly, a couple of points. The last time a Liberal government invested in water security measures—I do not think it was in my lifetime, or my adult lifetime. Who has invested in water security—the Wimmera-Mallee pipeline, the goldfields super-pipe, both of which were opposed by those opposite? Wedderburn, links to South Gippsland, the desal plant, the Connections Project in the north, all of those things are what we invest in.

I understand that water can be quite complex, so I get that people are not necessarily across every detail, particularly when it comes to the Murray-Darling Basin plan. But the water in the north is fully allocated. There is no spare water. So for me to build another dam, or the government to get money for another dam, would require us to take water off someone, so off an irrigator or off the environment, and guess what? I could not do that, even if I wanted to, under the Murray-Darling Basin plan. They are the rules that in fact those opposite signed up to.

You rejected the Lake Buffalo dam. The member for Murray Plains looked at it and rejected it because it did not stack up. It still does not stack up, but we cannot do it under the Murray-Darling Basin plan anyway. The member will get a much more detailed response. As I said, I could talk about it for many hours but I will not tonight, and the member will get a much more detailed response.

Other members have raised a range of issues for different ministers, and I will pass those issues onto those ministers.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The house now stands adjourned until tomorrow.

House adjourned 7.23 pm.