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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 11 Hansard (21 October) . . Page.. 3868 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

connect on the issues of sustainable water use and the future of water-indeed, the future of Australia. There is significant movement.

The Murray-Darling Basin Commission, through the last COAG meeting, made the first major commitment of funds to the Murray with the injection of $500 million into the national water initiative by the Commonwealth, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and the ACT-doing our part-in a determination to return environmental flows to the Murray system.

That is a great advance. We all know it is not enough, and we all know it was a long time coming, but it will make a significant impact over time. It is $100 million over five years, with an acknowledgment by each of those jurisdictions that it will have to be repeated at the end of that first five-year term, since $500 million over five years will not buy back enough of the water currently being taken out of the Murray to return the flows to a viable level. And there are other things that run off those increasing flows.

I go to the Murray in the context of the mood amongst governments, and within the community, of taking water seriously. It is serious. The time is up, and we cannot dither on these issues any longer. Big decisions need to be made, and they need to be made now. The future of our communities and of the environment of most of Australia depends on wise and good decisions being made now-and some courageous decisions. By courageous I mean in regard to resources that will be required to turn back some of the decisions, practices and habits that are part and parcel of the way we have all lived.

We have not respected water. We have not respected the fact that it is a finite resource and that it is our most valuable resource. As individuals in this community, we have not done that. We are now beginning to realise that our behaviours are not sustainable in terms of the health of communities, the capacity to grow and, indeed, the health of Australia. A visit to most of our river systems will tell you that.

I got onto that in the context of the importance of the Murray-Darling and the work that is being done there. The ACT is a sort of partner within the Murray-Darling Commission. We do not have legislative voting rights, but I am seeking to adjust that. I regard the ACT as a vital partner within the Murray-Darling Basin Commission. In the last two or three months I have written to each of my colleagues on the commission and asked them if they would support an amendment to the Murray-Darling Basin legislation to incorporate the ACT as a full member.

There are some implications for us in relation to that; perhaps it will cost us a few more bob. But it is only through our willingness to engage as full members of the commission, with legislative rights, that we can move with confidence for the establishment of a cap. Through that we can engage our neighbours, particularly New South Wales in this region, in serious negotiations about regional catchment management, cross-border management and, in the greater context of water, the trading and buying of water.

For the future, if our population is to grow, say, to half a million, we can look at whether we can avoid a dam, perhaps by replacing it with the trading of water with New South Wales. We could buy in water, say, from Tantangara, although it would require a dirty great pipeline, and perhaps through Namadgi. But that is a story for another day.

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