Water tax changes now needed: McCormack

Published on Friday, 23 November 2012

Michael McCormack MP

The Federal Government, having signed into law its controversial Murray-Darling Basin Plan, must now ensure the taxation provisions are such that irrigation companies are not penalised for putting in place projects to recover water for the environment.

This was Nationals' Member for Riverina Michael McCormack's first reaction to Water Minister Tony Burke's announcement of the Government's water reform today.

"The Government has promised to restore what it continually calls an ailing system yet at the moment many river red gums are drowning through too much water due to the floods and all the environmental flows," Mr McCormack said.

"At any rate this Government has to make tax changes to enable organisations such as Murrumbidgee Irrigation the ability to implement infrastructure upgrades.

"The Government said it would do this in February 2011 but nothing has yet been put in place to ensure this occurs and important measures which have been allocated funding and which could save considerable volumes of water have been mothballed."

Mr McCormack said he was surprised the Minister did not believe the 2750 billion litres the Basin Plan demanded was "ambitious enough" when an environmental watering plan had still not been made public.

"Add the 450 billion litres of additional water for South Australia which will be debated in Parliament next week and it remains to be seen just why that amount of water is needed, how it will be delivered to the supposed water icon sites for which it is intended and just how long-lying farms and riverbank towns such as Darlington Point will cope, especially in wet times and when water in upstream dams needs discharging."

Mr McCormack said it would be interesting to see how the Government approaches next week's tabling of the Basin Plan in Parliament.

"It is a legislative instrument so if there is no disallowance motion, and there are 15 sitting days for that to occur, it could just go through.

"It will be up to the Minister if MPs are given the opportunity to speak on it and if he wants to push a vote on it."

Mr McCormack said Mr Burke's comment Australia had been "putting this off for more than a century" and "that needs to end, that ends today" would be considered an insult to western Riverina farmers in a year which marks the centenary of irrigation in the local area.

"A hundred years ago, in the first Australian Parliament, it was considered a crowning achievement to be able to put in place the infrastructure to enable farming in places where it had not been previously possible," Mr McCormack said.

"Now in 2012, with the growing need to feed people being the greatest moral and economic challenge of our times, the Australian Government is overseeing the demise of the same irrigation system and the regional communities our pioneers worked so hard to build."