SUBJECTS: Murray-Darling Basin Plan, Water Markets, Water Conservation in South Australia

LEIGH RADFORD, HOST: Tanya Plibersek is the Minister for Environment and Water and we're fortunate to have her join us now. Minister, good afternoon. Welcome to Drive in South Australia.

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Great to talk to you, Leigh. How are you?

RADFORD: Very well indeed. Now you may have heard the set up to this piece, but specifically, Minister, off the back of such a big and important report yesterday, this is one of the key issues for South Australia, the health of the Murray-Darling. And it’s said that rivers die from the mouth up. So what are you going to do, Minister? Are you going to be able to deliver this 450 gigalitres of environmental water?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: We're 100 per cent committed to delivering the 450 gigalitres. I was just being very, very honest yesterday about how tough it is to do it in the timeline. And the Murray-Darling Basin Plan has been with us for a decade and in that decade, we've seen them deliver two out of 450 gigalitres, so two gigalitres out of 450 gigalitres, that's taken the previous government almost a decade. So it is tough to get that other 448 gigalitres in the time frame that we've got available to us.  

RADFORD: Why is it so tough Minister?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Because it's a lot of water and the previous government put all sorts of restrictions around how we can get that water back. What I want to do is work very close with the affected communities. Nothing is off the table. So I think in Rebecca Sharkey's question, she asked about buybacks. Buybacks are not off the table. We are absolutely looking at all available options to get that 450 gigalitres. But the honest truth is, it's a lot of water to get in a [indistinct].

RADFORD: What ideas have you got to try and crack the nut?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I've asked the new head of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority to come back to me with ideas on how we can get this 450 gigalitres. I've made it very clear to him when we were touring the Basin together [indistinct]. That we would - it's my expectation that the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, and he in particular, as the new CEO, will be working to get this 450 gigalitres into the Murray-Darling Basin system. You talked about the people, this being a big environmental issue and a big issue for the people. This is a big issue for South Australia. It's a big issue for the whole of Australia. I mean, you're talking about a million square kilometre river system, the communities, the wetlands, the flora and fauna, the traditional owners, the threatened species that depend on the river being healthy, cover a vast amount of land. We're talking millions of people, billions of dollars of tourism and agricultural output and precious parts of our environment that, once lost, we will not be able to retrieve. I think the State of the Environment report, if it told us anything yesterday, told us the task is much larger and more urgent than many Australians have realised.

RADFORD: I guess the pressure is off to a degree at the moment, Minister, because there's plenty of water coming down through the system. It's been raining a lot in the last couple of years and things are healthier than they've been for a long time, but it doesn't take long for that to turn around and for us to be back at a crisis point again. So, is there a sense of urgency with this new Federal Government to actually get on top of this and make the breakthroughs that are needed to achieve the goal?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Absolutely. And one of the first things I've done, is call Kevin Anderson the new-ish Water Minister in New South Wales about the fact that the State of New South Wales has 20 water plans that are outstanding that should have been delivered three years ago, about how they're going to return water to the system. So, yes, I feel a very strong sense of urgency but I have to say, I feel dismay. The target is 450 gigalitres and in nine years, the previous government delivered two out of 450 gigalitres and Perin Davey, the spokesperson from the Opposition on water has spent a career trying to argue that this water is not necessary and that's not necessary for the system, it wasn't really a promise, people have misunderstood. That's just not on. You've got actually an Opposition that spent all their time in government wriggling out of their responsibilities and now in Opposition, having learnt nothing, is arguing that the new Labor Government shouldn't meet the commitments that are clearly there in the Basin Plan, that, were the basis for South Australia signing onto the Basin plan.

RADFORD: Minister, I might just ask you to adjust your position slightly. We're losing a word or two on the mobile phone every now and then, but Steve has texted in this afternoon, Minister, and he's asking a question. How do you deal with intransigent New South Wales and Victorian open irrigation farmers that won't give a litre of water back, asks Steve of Clare. Is that right?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, for the most part, I would say that the farmers, the irrigators that I've spoken to and their representative organisations are very aware of the fact that we need to treat every drop of water as precious. I've met with farmers who have really dramatically changed their practice over the last years and even decades as they've realised that water is becoming increasingly scarce, as a resource. There are obviously people who will continue to do the wrong thing and I don't rule out taking  enforcement action against them. We know that people have, in some cases, deliberately done the wrong thing. We saw from the review of, the ACCC looked at the water licencing and water trading regimes recently and found some of the extraordinary [indistinct]behaviour in the water trading area, we need to have a look at, obviously, tightening up in those areas. I have to stress there are really great examples of water conservation [indistinct] spent time in South Australia with your brilliant Water Minister, Deputy Premier, Acting Premier Susan Close recently, where one of the local councils is doing a great job of stormwater harvesting and using that water for their parks and gardens. Water that previously would have come out of the river system [indistinct] instead from recycled stormwater. I mean, there are examples of great projects like that right up and down the system, examples of more efficient farming, examples of philanthropic organisations restoring habitat with the environmental flow that is going into the river, fish breeding areas and so on. But this last part of the puzzle of returning the river system to health is achieving that 450 gigalitres with the very sort of slow start we've had over the last nine years. I'm just being honest when I say it's going to be tough.

RADFORD: And look, you're absolutely right. I mean, enormous gains have been made, such big improvements have been achieved already. But I think the point for South Australia is if the water doesn't come across the border in the first place, well, that is really the nub of the issue. So there is a lot of blame, I guess, that's levelled from this end of the system to those further up the system. Just finally, the water market. There's a lot of heat, a lot of criticism of the way the water market works, the trading of water in the system. What's your view? What's the new government's view of the way things work now? And could you potentially consider changing any of that?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, nothing's off the table. And certainly when it comes to water trading, I think that ACCC report was quite appalling. It pointed to some quite appalling [indistinct] and a really, very poorly regulated trading system with not much transparency and not many rules. I think we need to improve on that, certainly for the future.

RADFORD: Minister, I think everybody in South Australia wishes you well with the challenge that lies ahead of you with just this single environmental issue. But we really appreciate your time on ABC Radio in South Australia today.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Thank you. It's great to talk to you.

RADFORD: Thank you. Tanya Plibersek, the Minister for the Environment and Water at the federal level.

END