Speech to the Irrigation Australia Conference

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I’d like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet this morning, the Kaurna people, and pay my respects to their Elders past and present.  

We’re gathering here in North Terrace today, in Adelaide, by the banks of the River Torrens – or as the Kaurna people called it, the ‘river of the red gum forest’.  

Isn’t that a beautiful name? River of the red gum forest. 

If you’re a native tree lover like me, or just someone who lives in the Basin, you’ll know that red river gum trees are the dominant species along the river line, and they can live for a thousand years or more.  

It’s hard to believe that anything can live so long in a land like this, but they’re survivors.  

They put down deep roots, which manage the floodwater when it’s wet, and soak up the groundwater when it’s dry.  

They’re tough and adaptable and resilient – just like the people of the Murray Darling I’ve had the honour of meeting since becoming Water Minister.  

People who’ve established their roots, who’ve lived through the extremes of flood and fire and drought, and who are determined to survive and flourish in this beautiful corner of Australia.  

Can I extend my thanks to Irrigation Australia for inviting me to open this session.  

And can I thank everyone from the Basin who is joining us today, as well as everyone who has already engaged with me in a spirit of cooperation and good faith.  

I’ve spent a lot of time in different Basin communities over the past four months.

 
I’ve been to Griffith and Albury and St George.  

I’ve been to Dubbo, Wilcannia and Mildura, and today I’m travelling down to the Coorong and the Lower Lakes.  

I’ve talked to irrigators, tourism operators, public servants and traditional owners.  

I know that there’s a lot of history and emotion behind the Basin Plan … and I’m not going to downplay or minimise that.  

But I can tell you this: the interactions I’ve had since taking on this job have been overwhelmingly positive and constructive.  

Different kinds of people, from different walks of life, living in different points on the river system, have gone out of their way to be supportive and helpful.  

They haven’t been defensive or wary, whatever their previous feelings towards government or the Basin process.  

They’ve come to me with positive ideas – they’ve come with practical proposals – written in the spirit of the Plan.  

They want the Plan to work – because they know it has to work.   

And as Minister, I can tell you that’s given me a great sense of encouragement.  

It can feel a bit ridiculous talking about water scarcity right now, when most of the country is the wettest it’s been in a long time.  

And more rain is forecast across the south east this week – which we’re following very closely, while standing by ready to act if we need to.

  
But the one thing we do know in this country is that dry years are always around the corner.   

And the best time to prepare for the next drought is when we’re safely out of the grip of the last one.  

Everyone I’ve met in my travels and meetings, including with the irrigation sector, understands the importance of preparing for the next dry stretch – 
And making sure the entire Basin system is placed on a sustainable path going forward.   

Because the Murray Darling Basin is far too important a national asset to risk – by ignoring its biggest challenges, or putting our heads in the sand, or by sitting back and hoping for the best.  

This Basin is a crucial heartland of our nation.  

Over two million people live here.   

The river system is the life blood of these communities, and a food bowl for the rest of the country, and for much of the globe as well. 

Food and fibre produced in the Basin contributes $24 billion every year to our economy.  

40% of Australia’s agricultural products are produced here, including all our rice, almost 75% of our grapes and 30% of our dairy. 

I said this in Griffith, but I want to say it again here: irrigation has been an unquestionably great thing for this country.

 
Making our land productive is a noble mission.

 
Feeding people is a noble mission. 

This is a government that celebrates your success, that recognises your value, and that has no interest in undermining your important work.  

Our only concern is making sure our irrigation communities are on a sustainable path – and that we can maintain a healthy, productive food bowl for generations to come.  

When I talk to Australian farmers, they understand this, perhaps better than anyone.  

You all appreciate the immense value of water. 

You all know, when push comes to shove, that every drop is sacred.  

And you don’t just know it; you live it. 

Australian farmers are as adaptable and efficient as any in the world. 

Our cotton farmers have – in 25 years – almost halved the water that is needed to grow a bale of cotton. 

It’s a remarkable achievement – and it didn’t emerge out of the air.  

It was only made possible by significant investment in more efficient irrigation infrastructure, and by delivering on management efficiencies too.

  
Cotton growers are looking to better these improvements by 2024 – and looking at your record, I think you can do it. 

The same applies to rice, where Australian growers use fifty percent less water than the global average. 

Our farmers are always trying to squeeze every drop of value from water … and we thank and respect you for it. 

But the difficult reality is, we need to keep squeezing, because water management is only going to get more difficult in this country.  

Rainfall patterns are changing. Temperatures are changing.  

Climate change means that, on average, we’ll get more variable rain in the north and less rain in the southeast.  

Which means that Basin flows could fall by as much as thirty percent by 2050.  

I know these are difficult conversations, believe me, but we have to have them.  

We all know why we designed 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 in response to the Millennium Drought.  

When inflows to the Murray Darling fell to their lowest level on record.  

When salinity rose and the soil became acidified.  

When the mouth of the great river system closed before it reached the sea.  

And when communities were battered and shellshocked like never before.  

Here in South Australia, border flows virtually ceased – placing severe restrictions on local irrigators, causing riverbanks to collapse, and putting Adelaide’s drinking water in serious danger.  

That was the situation.  

And that’s why the states and the Commonwealth came together and signed the Murray Darling Basin Plan.  

It was an agreement of necessity.  

And in the ten years since we signed it, we’ve made real progress towards it’s aims – which is something we should celebrate as a country.  

In the last drought, water recovery was a lifeline for communities that found themselves in a very dark place.  

In 2019, it helped save rivers in the northern basin, when they were in a terrible state.  

And at the bottom of the system, at the mouth of the Murray, it’s helped keep the river connected to the sea for eight of the past ten years, flushing salt and other toxins into the Southern Ocean. 

It took sacrifice to get this point – and I want to recognise the difficult adjustments irrigators across the system had to make along the way.  

By promoted greater efficiency in your operations, by accepting water recovery efforts, you’ve already supported positive environmental outcomes across the Basin … 

… And you’ve already created a healthier, more resilient river system.  

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

The recently completed Goulburn-Murray Connections project in Victoria, for instance, is an example of what we can achieve when we work together.  

This is the largest single water saving project in Australia’s history – which in and of itself is an extraordinary achievement. 

It increased the efficiency of the Goulburn-Murray water irrigation network, by decommissioning 1,725 kilometres of irrigation channels, and by modernising meters which reduce water losses when delivering water.  

These projects are already doing a great deal of good.  

Water recovery is already doing a great deal of good.  

But we need to deliver the full plan – if we want to achieve the full benefits.   

As I’m sure you all know by now, our Government has made some strong commitments on water, including the 450 gigalitres of additional environmental water.  

I’m committed to delivering on this promise, but I’m open minded about we get there.  

We’ll be collaborative. We’ll be creative. And we’ll be purposeful.  

We won’t be held back by old taboos or brown tape.  

And we won’t kick this can down the road any longer.  

We’re already getting on with the job: 

 

• By contracting as much water towards the 450 target in our first four months as the previous government delivered in nine years 
• By exploring the viability of new projects, with a sense of urgency, right across the Basin 
• By supporting compliance measures, to get ourselves to a situation where everyone is living under the same rules and following the same processes 
• And by working with NSW to deliver their overdue water resource plans – just two weeks ago, I announced the accreditation of the very first plan from New South Wales, which was left hanging for three years by the previous government 

As I said, we’re committed to delivering this water.  

I want to work with you all to get there, and from the early signs, it seems that the sector wants to work with me too.  

So thank you again, everyone, for approaching me in good faith.   

If everyone is at the table, communicating and listening, we’re going to end up with a better, fairer outcome. 

Next week, my state colleagues and I will hold our first Ministerial Council of Murray-Darling Basin Ministers.  

I know that Federation has always been a hurdle for Murray Darling policy, ever since we designed the Constitution.  

Successful water policy can only ever happen by mutual agreement in this country.  

But I’m feeling hopeful and optimistic about next week.  

We’ve come a long way over the past decade – and my early conversations with state ministers have been encouraging.  

People in different parts of the Basin might have different interests.  

I’m not going to pretend those differences don’t exist.  

But there are things we all hold in common too.  

We all want to see these rivers connecting up together, in a big web of fertile land, all the way to the sea.   

We all want to guarantee the water Australia needs to irrigate our farms, and to grow our incredible produce – the best produce in the world.  

And we all want this Basin to be sustainable – to be there for us in twenty, fifty, and a hundred years' time. 

If we can all keep hold of these essential interests – that we all depend on a healthy, flowing Murray Darling Basin – then I’m confident we can find common ground and support the river system together. 

Thank you.