Thursday, 4 May 2023

Ministers statements: water policy

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Water, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Commonwealth Games Legacy, Minister for Equality) (12:06): One of my very favourite things about being the water minister is the opportunity to get out and talk to communities about the basin plan – an incredibly intricate, complex and important part of water regulation as we move into an era of a finite resource and a greater level of complexity around the way in which we balance interests of food producers, of environmental needs, of communities, of traditional owners and indeed of the biodiversity concerns and priorities that are continuing to emerge around the nation.

Since the last Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council meeting in February, I have been out and about listening to Victorian communities across the basin, including in Mildura and Shepparton most recently. It has been made very, very clear to me on the ground and in these communities that northern Victoria has endured a really significant set of challenges over recent years, from droughts to COVID through to the recovery associated with flood. That is incredibly difficult work, with a very long tail.

Facing the uncertainty around buybacks now, introduced by the Commonwealth in a range of states that have not yet met their Bridging the Gap targets, is a further set of challenges, worry and distress for communities in the north of the state. Communities are in fact asking for a really sensible way forward to deliver the basin plan and to make sure that we are not causing negative impact upon communities and that we maintain our commitment to the 2018 socio-economic criteria which were agreed by jurisdictions in the context of Murray-Darling Basin plan discussions. It is really important to note that Victoria has achieved enormous progress at the cost of communities in order to bring back record amounts of water to the environment to make sure that primary producers are using less water to deliver more, and that conversation goes on.