Interview with Warwick Long, Victorian Statewide Drive, ABC Radio

WARWICK LONG, HOST: Let's go to the Minister though. It's been a long time coming, but the Federal Water and Environment Minister Murray Watt, has made his way to Victoria this week to meet with those living in the Murray-Darling Basin. It's a key time for the Basin, with the Basin Authority consulting on developing new plans for managing the river system, and the Federal Government steadfastly pushing forward with more water buybacks from farmers despite opposition from the Victorian Labor Government on that.

And there is an announcement as well from him on the $120 million for an upgrade to water services for you if you're paying your bills to Coliban Water. We'll get to that. Minister Murray Watt joining you now on Drive.

Welcome. MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Great to talk to you again, Warwick. WARWICK LONG: I want to ask you about your tour and this situation with water.

First, but so much in Victoria right now has been about this refinery fire. You're Environment Minister as well. Have you been keeping an eye to that and what it will do to fuel supplies or any impacts on the environment there?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah. So, obviously, Chris Bowen, as the Energy Minister, has been the lead for us in responding to this event today. Of course, a terrible thing to see happen.

As far as I'm aware, we still don't think there's been any injuries, which is terrific for the workforce. But of course, this is going to have a further impact on our fuel supplies at a time that we wouldn't want to see that happen. My understanding is that it's not likely to have a significant impact on jet fuel and diesel, but it is likely to have an impact on petrol supplies.

So I think we're at that stage of people trying to get their heads across exactly what this means. But let's be honest, it's not a helpful development, but as I say, I'm really happy that it doesn't sound like anyone's been injured. WARWICK LONG: Let's talk to you about liquids of a different kind because that's what you're in the region to talk about today.

You're in the Murray-Darling Basin talking about the progress of the Basin Plan. Take us into this tour and what you're doing in Victoria today. MURRAY WATT: Yeah, so I've been keen to get into the Basin for a while, and now that Parliament's over for a little while there's space to do that.

And basically, I'm spending two days in Central and Northern Victoria. So we've been in Bendigo, Echuca, on my way to the Goulburn River, just near Molesworth now. And really, the purpose is to listen firsthand to a broad range of perspectives about the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, both in terms of what's been happening now as a result of the plan but also thinking about the future of the plan.

You're probably aware that we're in in the middle of a consultation process at the moment to establish what the next version of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is - there's a lot of consultation sessions being held around the country by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. But I was also keen personally to get out, meet with people, listen to people - I've been on a dairy farm today listening to farmers, I'm obviously on the way to the Goulburn River now.

There's nothing quite like fronting up and hearing what people have got to say. So that's really the purpose of the visit. And we might talk about this a bit later, but obviously, a really good announcement in terms of water efficiency for the Bendigo region as well.

So, yeah, look, I've had some really productive discussions today already. I was in Echuca this morning, met with probably about 25 representatives of farmers, irrigators, local governments, other community representatives. It was a very respectful and constructive conversation, with me sort of outlining to people my thoughts about where we were at and should go but doing a hell of a lot of listening as well about different people's ideas, particularly for where we go from here.

WARWICK LONG: Did anyone say something to you or give you a piece of information that made you question an element of the Government's plan or give you pause for thought for future policy? MURRAY WATT: Look, I think largely what I heard was fairly consistent with some of the advice that I've been receiving from my department. But it's always good to have that reinforced, especially when you hear it directly from people.

And in particular, it won't surprise you to hear that there was pretty strong opposition to water buybacks from that group that we met with this morning. I'm aware that that's a strongly held view by farmers in the region and local governments. But equally, there was a very strong theme about wanting to make sure that we use the water that we have recovered better than we have been in the past.

And that's something I'll certainly be thinking about as we're coming up with the new plan. I've made very clear to people, not just in this forum, but ever since I've taken on this role, that it is my intention to deliver on the current plan. Those requirements, including voluntary buybacks, are legislated now, so they're required by law.

But we don't have to have a new plan that is an identical replica of the current plan. What we need to do is think about where is the river system at from an environmental point of view; where are communities and industries at; and what's the right plan to try to get the balanced approach that we want moving forward. WARWICK LONG: But that's one of the interesting points about what you're talking about, though, isn't it?

You say you want to consult, you say you want to think about the plan going forward, but at the same time you're buying up a lot of water in the middle of that. So you're not really changing your thought process or what the Government wants to do. MURRAY WATT: Well, as I say, the requirement to recover 450 gigalitres of water for the environment is now legislated so, you know, that is a legal requirement that I need to fulfil.

It's worth making the point that the requirement to recover 450 gigalitres obviously was in place before our Government got elected. The difference was that nothing had been done in the previous 10 years under the Coalition to start actually reaching that target, which the science told us- WARWICK LONG: -Because they were getting the 2,750 before that, which now- MURRAY WATT: -Yeah, that's right.

That’s obviously- WARWICK LONG: -3,200 gigalitres you're going for. MURRAY WATT: Yeah, that's obviously part of it. But as I say, the requirement to get that extra 450 gigalitres was in place before our Government was elected.

But we're taking that seriously and it is our intention to deliver that. Because our view is that is required for the future environmental health and to make sure that we've got an agriculture sector and communities in the Basin long term. But we recognise that does involve a degree of pain for some communities.

And that's why we've had $300 million available to state governments to support industry adjustment. The New South Wales Government has taken up that offer and we've started rolling out that funding. The Victorian Government, to date, has not been keen to do that, but we've been having some good discussions with them about that.

WARWICK LONG: Because the Victorian Government didn't want you voluntarily buying back this water, but you're doing it anyway. MURRAY WATT: Yeah, that's right. And I understand that that's the Victorian Government's position.

In fact, I've spoken today with the new Water Minister, Harriet Shing, and she's again reiterated to me that that's the Victorian Government's position and- WARWICK LONG: -You're not slowing down on the buybacks, though, are you? There's been some suggestion you'll be done with your buyback approach to the 450 gigalitres that you're trying to get by Christmas.

Is that the case? MURRAY WATT: Look, I don't think we'd reach the full 450 by the end of this year. We've got until the end of next year, end of 2027, to reach that 450 gigalitre target.

But we expect to be at a point where we'll have 400 by the end of this year. WARWICK LONG: That's a lot of water out of the market in a short period of time, though. Are communities telling you they're hurting because of that water disappearing from productive agriculture?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah. Look, I mean, I'll be honest, some communities are saying that - not everyone. Some communities and some industries are saying that to me.

WARWICK LONG: Minister Murray Watt is with you, the Environment and Water Minister, touring through regional Victoria this week, looking at the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. I want to ask you about your announcement today. Before I get there, Minister, just in terms of the anger and some of what you've seen in regional Victoria - in fact, we've been talking about this today on our program - about the increased levels of protests you're seeing in regional Victoria.

And quite prominently there's a lot of Australian flags flying upside down in areas where water buybacks have been, although that's not the only thing people are protesting about here. How do you feel about people announcing their anger, protest in such a way as flying an Australian flag upside down? MURRAY WATT: Well, probably doing that is not something I would do myself as a way of protesting.

But, you know, we live in a democracy and, you know, people are entitled to express their views. Almost any decision that governments make there is going to be some degree of support for it and some degree of opposition for it - that's just the nature of things. And look, I don't take it lightly that we do see people opposed to these buybacks.

I guess my job, though, is to respectfully listen to those views and explain the reasons for the Government making the decisions that we have. And hopefully what I've been able to communicate today are some of those reasons about, you know, these are decisions made for the long term of the Basin. I think everyone would accept that the Basin has been under enormous stress environmentally.

And a large part of that is about past over-allocation and over-extraction of water from the Basin, and we've got to do something about that. WARWICK LONG: The Coliban Water announcement today, $120 million in federal funding. What's that going to go to?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah. So, this is a good example of the kind of investments we're making in water efficiency infrastructure. We've heard the message from people in the region that it shouldn't all be about buybacks, and that's why we're putting these sorts of investments forward.

So, this is a project that was brought to me by Lisa Chesters, the Federal Member for Bendigo, on behalf of Coliban Water. Basically, as you may know, the current rural water supply network, the channels and other things transporting water in the Bendigo region, are really dilapidated. They go back to the 1870’s.

Yesterday when we made the announcement I was- WARWICK LONG: -They were losing something like 80 per cent water through losses there. MURRAY WATT: That's right, yeah. It's extraordinary, extraordinary.

So, you know, losing 80 per cent of the water through evaporation, leakage, and, you know, that's just not acceptable at a time when we need to save every drop of water that we can. So, this investment, $120 million from the Federal Government, $40 million from the state government via Coliban Water, that's basically about modernising the water supply network in the region.

You know, obviously, while I was in Bendigo, Coliban Water extends well beyond Bendigo - up to Echuca, down to Kyneton, east and west as well, so there's a lot of water users in the region which who will now, once this is built, get more reliable, sustainable water supplies without water bills having to go through the roof to pay it as a result of this investment.

But I guess the other thing worth mentioning about it is that it will also deliver 4.5 gigalitres of water back into the Murray-Darling Basin. We've worked out that's about 8 or 9 Sydney Harbours worth of water, so it’s a very large contribution- WARWICK LONG: -So, it’s water you don't have to buy? MURRAY WATT: WARWICK LONG: There's other projects like this, though, that are waiting for Federal Government money, aren't there?

Like the Grampians Wimmera Mallee pipeline - they've been waiting for over 12 months as a part of a Victorian Government drought policy to get matching funds from the Federal Government. If they can do that, hundreds more properties get connected by a pipeline that saves water. Are you prepared to look at that or try and get that money flowing faster as a result of the drought measures the Victorian Government put in place?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, look, I'm certainly aware of that project, Warwick, and it's been raised with me by the Victorian Government and farmers from the region. As you would know, we did jointly fund the first stage of that project with the Victorian Government, so we have put money into it already. And look, it's one of a number of different projects that are seeking funding across the Basin from us, so we're still in the process of considering that one.

WARWICK LONG: Murray Watt, thanks very much for your time. MURRAY WATT: No worries, Warwick. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture.

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