Opening remarks to the Murray Darling Basin Ministerial Council meeting

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I’d like to start by acknowledging the place in which we gather today, on the traditional land of the Ngunnawal people, and I pay my respects to their Elders past and present.

Gatherings are an important part of life for First Nations, and I recognise the intricate and enduring connection to water of our Indigenous Australians.

It’s good to be here with you all, in person, and with Minister Butcher attending virtually.

I also want to note that the Inspector-General for Water Compliance will be an apology.

I recognise that for many of us here, including me, this is our first Ministerial Council meeting as Water Ministers.

And I look forward to meeting again early next year.

The Basin Officials Committee have been working on this consistently – and we need to be able to shift with the times.

Ten years ago, next month, the governments represented in this room signed the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

It was an historic agreement, designed out of necessity.

We can never forget why we created the Murray Darling Basin Plan in the first place.

We didn’t write it in the middle of a third La Nina cycle.

We wrote it in response to the Millennium Drought.

And while the dams are full and the rivers are currently flowing, at dangerous levels in many places, we know that dry years are always around the corner in this country.

And science tells us that those dry spells are getting longer, hotter, and even less forgiving to human settlement and agriculture.

Climate change means that, on average, we’ll get more variable rain in northern Australia and less rain in the south-east.

Which means that basin river flows could decline by as much as thirty percent by 2050.

That makes what we’re doing here even more critical – the challenges have only increased in the past decade.

On that note, I just want to take a moment to thank you for your work so far.

It’s important to acknowledge that over 2,000 GL has been recovered and is being held by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder.

The bulk of the supply and constraints projects have either been delivered or are on track.

But these last stages of the plan are the hardest and progress in recent years has stalled.

The last few months has seen more progress than we’ve seen in many years, and I thank you for working with me collaboratively and cooperatively to achieve so much.

Together we’ve signed off on:

• A new stock and domestic water project in NSW 
• A first of its kind recycled stormwater project in SA 
• Another first to include First Nations water allocations in VIC
• And we’ve had positive discussions with communities in QLD to recover the remaining gap bridging target in the Condamine-Balonne.

Successful delivery of the plan means cooperation, collaboration, creativity and compromise between us, here in this room, and I know we can get there.

Our government is committed to delivering on our promises to the Basin.

We’ll work with other Basin governments to deliver this internationally important plan.

We’ll increase compliance and improve metering and monitoring.

We’ll restore transparency, integrity and confidence in water markets and management.

We’ll increase First Nations ownership and involvement in water.

And we’ll update the science too.

Nationally, we have committed to changes that will drive ongoing water reform. These changes include:

• Re-establishing a National Water Commission,
• Renewing the National Water Initiative
• Expanding the remit of the National Water Grid to include water security for remote and rural communities.

We saw during the last drought that the water we’ve recovered is already doing a lot of good for communities – but we need more.

The current off-farm efficiency program is edging us towards more water recovery, while also providing more usable water for irrigators.

But as the review into the Water for the Environment Special Account has clearly indicated, it won’t be possible to reach the 450 GL target under the current work program.

I am open to ideas about how we can get there, because continuing the ‘run down the clock’ approach of the previous administration will not protect our environment or our farmers.

Getting there is not negotiable – how we get there is.