PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Mr FARLEY (Farrer) (11:00): I move: That this House: (1) calls on the Government to: (a) immediately pause further purchases of water entitlements from irrigated agriculture in the Murray-Darling Basin until the 2026 reviews of the Water Act 2007, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, and the National Food Security Strategy have been considered and secured; and (b) establish a 2026-27 Murray-Darling Basin Productive Water Initiative under which, subject to law and critical environmental needs, 75 per cent of available Commonwealth environmental water is made available for agricultural production in the 2026-27 growing season; (2) calls for water: (a) made available under this initiative to be returned to the productive pool in the valleys from which it was acquired, wherever possible; and (b) to be allocated to agricultural producers through a transparent, market-based process; (3) recognises that: (a) water used for agriculture supports economic activity beyond the farm gate, including: (i) food and fibre processing; (ii) manufacturing; (iii) engineering; (iv) transportation; (v) logistics; (vi) regional jobs; (vii) exports; and (viii) local resilience; (b) this initiative/intervention: (i) is at zero cost to Government; (ii) is revenue accreditive; (iii) expands the tax base for Government; (iv) secures skilled workforce; and (v) has land and operational equipment at the ready; and (c) keeping Murray-Darling Basin communities productive matters to Australia's food security, food affordability, drought resilience and sovereign capability; and (4) further calls on the Government to: (a) put water back into the productive pool; and (b) assist Murray-Darling Basin communities, Australian food production, and regional jobs in becoming aligned with the environmental objectives.

Let me be upfront about this motion. This is not a free lunch. Every megalitre we release into production this spring is a megalitre to be replaced with inflows over the next 12 months.

There is a genuine trade-off. I won't pretend otherwise, because the moment I do, the argument falls apart. But the one trade-off is worth taking right now, this year, for one reason: Mother Nature has done something the Bureau of Meteorology didn't forecast.

A wet winter and an early spring are filling our storages and assisting in completing the environmental watering programs the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder need to deliver this year. This is water that, under section 108 of the Water Act 2007, would ordinarily stay locked away. Water, this year, is genuinely available.

This motion asks the basin authority and the Environmental Water Holder to confirm exactly how much, on an accelerated timeline—not to surrender control but to exercise it faster, because the timeline is the entire point. Some will say this reallocation goes too far and that it risks the environmental gains the Basin Plan was built to protect. I take that concern seriously, and I ask the members to look at how this mechanism is built.

This is a one-off season reallocation, tied to this year's exceptional inflows, not a permanent change to entitlements. The water must return to the region it came from, and it cannot be stripped out and sold elsewhere—and nothing moves without the basin authority or the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder confirming that it is consistent with their own environmental obligations.

This is not a decorative safeguard; they are the conditions on which this motion stands or falls. The optimum spring planting window is mid-September to mid-October. It is open right now.

Miss it and our regional economies contract for another year. Catch it and they respond immediately. The land is ready, our farmers are skilled, the equipment is in the paddocks and our forward markets are already pricing Australian-grown food.

Every piece of this equation is in place except one: the water needs to be released into production in time. The scale of what is at stake is real. Irrigated agriculture uses less than one per cent of our farmland, yet produces close to 30 per cent of our agricultural output.

The Murray-Darling Basin alone accounts for around 60 per cent of the nation's irrigated land and 40 per cent of our food production—worth in the order of $25 billion a year—and supports more than 8,000 irrigation businesses. In May 2025, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer said this government is securing Australia's future by making our economy more productive and more resilient.

I take them at their word. This motion is not an attack on that agenda; it's a direct test and an alignment with it. This motion is anchored to the government's objectives and to the planting window, not to a calendar.

I've asked for a decision with enough time left in the planning season for it to matter—a decision by 3 October. I'm not asking the basin authority to cut corners; I'm asking the minister to come back to this House within three sitting days and confirm the water trade, in public, while there is still time left in the planting window to act. The choice before this House is vital to Australia's planting window and productivity objectives.

It's between a measured one-off authority-approved trade-off made this week and a defined benefit to regional Australia by default—12 more months of waiting while reports are written and a season planting window is abandoned. Australia cannot afford to waste this unique opportunity. I commend the motion to the House and call for a seconder.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Mascarenhas ): Is there a seconder for the motion?