Murray Darling Basin Authority Public Meeting: Tony Abbott Speech

15/12/11

TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR

ADDRESS TO MURRAY DARLING BASIN AUTHORITY PUBLIC MEETING,

GRIFFITH, NEW SOUTH WALES

E&OE……………………….……………………………………………………………

Ladies and gentlemen, first of all I want to thank you for coming out today to stand up for your town, your district and this great Murray-Darling Basin. This is a basin which is home to two million people. It produces 40 per cent of our agricultural output. It is the food bowl of Australia, it should be the food bowl of Asia and we want to ensure that it continues to be the greatest food producing area of our country.

Now, I am here because I think that this is not just an issue that concerns you. This is an issue which concerns our country, and because of your role in our exports this is an issue which concerns the wider world because if we can’t continue to produce food in vast quantities in areas like the Murray-Darling Basin we are not just harming ourselves but we are harming the world. Food security is an increasing issue in the modern world and we won’t have food security if we don’t also have water security.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, one of the things that has really upset me about the whole debate over the Murray-Darling Basin, one of the things that really upsets me about the whole tenor of so much of our conversation in Canberra is this assumption that somehow the farmers and the foresters and the fishermen of our country are against the environment. Wrong. The farmers of this country are the best environmentalists, the best conservationists that we have. You live off the land and you know that you have got to protect the land because if you don’t look after the land there’s no more living for you, there’s no more living for your children and your grandchildren. If there is one group in this country who have a commitment to continuity, who have a commitment to doing the right thing by future generations, it is the farmers of this country and the farmers of the Murray-Darling Basin.

So ladies and gentlemen, you know, I know, that we’ve got to do the right thing by the environment. You know that as much as I know that and you’re trying to practise the best possible environmental farming methods and we should try to put more water into the river for environmental purposes but we can’t put more water into the river for environmental purposes in ways that destroy your livelihoods and damage these communities. I think we can get significant amounts of water back into the river and we can do that by actually intelligently spending the $5.4 billion I think it is that the Howard Government put aside for infrastructure improvements. We’ve got to spend the money, not just talk about spending the money and, yes, where people genuinely want to surrender their water rights for a good price they should be able to do that but they can’t be willy-nilly buybacks. They’ve got to be from willing sellers. They’ve got to be done in ways which respect the ability of other irrigators to continue and it’s got to be in accordance with a good plan, not a bad plan.

So ladies and gentlemen, I want to say to you that as far as the Coalition is concerned we will not support a bad plan. We want a plan that secures your future. We want a plan which gives you certainty. We want a plan which doesn’t send the value of your businesses down. We want a plan that doesn’t send the value of your houses down, and that’s why we are here today: me, as the leader of the Coalition, Michael McCormack, as your local member, Fiona Nash as a local senator, Sussan Ley, one of the neighbouring members of parliament. But we are here to say that we will not support a bad plan. That is the commitment that I give to you here today and I think there’s about 10,000 witnesses.

Now, I want to say finally, in conclusion, Craig, you’ve got a very hard job. I know you will discharge it to the best of your ability. Tony, you’ve got a difficult job too and I want to say good on you for having the guts to turn up today. Please, you’ve got to respect a bloke who is prepared to turn up and face what he knows is going to be a hostile audience. So I think you’ve got to give your minister that much credit at least today. But, in the end, what we have all got to understand is that for you in this room and for the people living throughout the basin, water is life. You have a stake in this system in a way that, dare I say it, Bob Brown and his colleagues in Canberra just don’t and that’s why it is important that this government spends more time listening to people like you and less time being dictated to by Bob Brown and the Greens.

Thank you very much.