PM: It's great to be here today with Premier John Brumby, I'm also joined by the Federal Water Minister, Tony Burke, and by the Victorian Water Minister Tim Holding, and we're here today to make an important announcement. We have been working together, and the Federal Government has been driven by a reform program for the Murray-Darling Basin.
You would of heard both me and the Minister for Water Tony Burke, say constantly over the last few weeks that we want to see an outcome for the Murray-Darling Basin that means we have strong communities, we have food production, and we have healthy rivers. That we can win in all of these areas, keeping our communities strong, having food production, and improving our environment.
Today we're announcing an historic partnership which fits in with this reform agenda. It is a win for farmers, and a win for the environment. Today I'm here to announce that the Federal Government will make available $953 million to upgrade old irrigation infrastructure in the Goulburn-Murray area.
Now much of this infrastructure is old, some of it is very old, indeed 80 years old. That means of course that the water seeps, it leaks, it evaporates, and we are not using the water efficiently.
By upgrading the infrastructure we believe we can make available 200 billion litres more water, we can save it from seeping and leaking and evaporating. And the water that is saved will be divided 50 per cent for the benefit of farmers through increased irrigation, 50 per cent for the benefit of the environment with more water able to flow naturally through the river.
This is a great outcome and a product of a strong partnership with the Government of Victoria. So I'll turn now to the Victorian Premier for some comments.
PREMIER BRUMBY: Thank you very much Prime Minister and can I just too acknowledge Luke Donnellan today as the Parliamentary Secretary to me and also as the local Member. This is a fantastic announcement today and if I could thank the Prime Minister for this announcement, $953 million.
The timing of this in terms of the impact it'll have in regional areas couldn't be better, this'll mean jobs, confidence, optimism and prosperity for the future, and if you think about this in the context of what is an historically high Australian dollar, for all of our producers, whether they're in the stone fruit business, whether they're in the dairy business, this is a challenging environment with a high Australian dollar, and so what this investment will do is secure the future of irrigated agriculture and horticulture in our food-bowl region.
And I think everybody's aware we've been great supporters of this food-bowl project, it is an idea that came from the region and we talked to leading irrigators, leading horticulturalists in the region, and we worked out with them what's the best way for them to go forward, to secure the future of agriculture, to secure the future of regional Victoria, but also to return water to our environment. And that's what food-bowl project is all about, or Northern Victorian Irrigation Renewal Project as we call it. It's about investing in infrastructure that was built between 50 and 100 years ago, and it's like a lot of things that were built between 50 and 100 years ago, they're not as efficient, it's not as efficient as it could be, and the losses out of this system are huge - up to 800 billion litres a year of water lost, as the Prime Minister has said through evaporation, seepage, leakage, poor metering.
And by investing in the infrastructure, by sealing some of the systems, by taking out some of the old open channels, by improving the way in which we move that water there are immense water savings.
As the Prime Minister has said today this is a win for farmers and a win for the environment, it is. This project will ensure that there's 200 billion litres of water savings - 100 billion litres of water savings for the environment, and 100 billion litres of water savings for farmers - and of course it builds of what we're doing in stage one, so we kicked this off with our billion dollars, work is underway now, there's already 56 billion litres of savings, already those savings are coming through the system in fact at a bit better than we expected. Already they're being returned, already they're making a difference, already they're generating confidence and jobs in the region.
And last winter there was something like 500 people directly employed on projects in relation to this food-bowl stage one. Next winter you'll see even more, the winter after that even more, as the Federal money starts flowing in and this great transformational project, this great partnership between our Government and the Gillard Government kicks into full steam ahead and secures the futures of this region.
We're here today at Montague's, Montague's have got a lot of investments, four generations of families right across the State, some of them in the food-bowl region, but they know the importance of secure irrigated water for the future. In terms of making the big investments, in terms of generating the jobs, and so this is a just a fantastic investment, a fantastic announcement for our State today, and as the Prime Minister said, in the current debate about Murray-Darling I think this is a great signal by the Federal Government about the direction in which they're heading, where you can have a win for farmers, a win for regional Australia, and a win for the environment as well.
More water for the Murray, but more water too for irrigated agriculture, so it's a fantastic announcement Prime Minister, we thank you for that, and I think today is really a great stepping stone to a confident future for our farmers, for our regions and for the Murray river.
PM: Yes can I say thank you to the Montague family too, thank you for the little pictures that the girls did for me, all perfect apart from the Collingwood flag flying out the front, but there we have it, it was a good apple. Have we got any questions?
JOURNALIST: How does this fit in with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's plan, does this mean that less water will have to be taken off farmers?
PM: Well we are continuing to work through the process for the Murray-Darling Basin Authority plan. The Murray-Darling Basin Authority, independent authority generating the plan, of course we now have a Parliamentary Committee led by Tony Windsor and Minister Burke is also engaged in direct consultations with communities, but the water that is able to be saved through work like this does count towards the sustainable diversion limits that you've seen in the guide which will lead to the production of the draft plan, which will ultimately, following further consultation, lead to the plan itself.
JOURNALIST: Will you be offering similar support packages for other areas?
PM: We have been big investors in upgrading irrigation infrastructure, we're doing it because it's an efficient way of saving water. When we came to Government obviously we came in a circumstance where the Federal Government had not been involved in purchasing water, so for the first time we've done that, and where the Federal Government did not have a large sustained program of upgrading irrigation, and we've been doing that and today's announcement fits in with our broader program around the country of upgrading irrigation infrastructure. So we're getting the water for productive purposes, rather than seeping or leaking or evaporating; that means for irrigation, and more for the environment itself.
JOURNALIST: So does that mean you'll be able to take less from farmers under the Murray Basin plan, or you just know yet?
PM: Well we've just got to be clear, we're some way away from having the Murray-Darling Basin Authority plan. We've got a guide, then we'll have a draft plan, and we'll have further consultations for the final plan. The concept throughout though is about sustainable diversion limits, how much water can be taken. The water that is saved through this work can count in that process, so it does make a difference but of course I don't want to pre-empt what the endpoint will be, the limits will be defined in the final plan because we've got some journey to travel yet. And throughout that journey our frame here for decision making is we want to see healthy rivers, we want to see strong communities and we want to see food production. We believe we can get a triple bottom line win: a win for the environment, a win for farmers, a win for communities. We're working on that, and making sure that we've got modern infrastructure for irrigation is part of achieving that triple bottom line win and that's what today's announcement is about.
JOURNALIST: Will we ever get to a point where there are no more open water channels in Australia? Would you like to get to that point?
PM: Well that's obviously a very grand ambition given how much open water channels we've got. The focus for our investment has to be where we can most efficiently make a difference, so the dollars can do the maximum work, which is why this project stands out, the dollars invested here can do a lot of work. Premier Brumby might want to say something.
BRUMBY: I was just going to say there's a lot of channels, I think in this, in food-bowl it's 6,500 kilometres, but of course again in partnership with the Federal Government we've just completed Wimmera Mallee Pipeline, that was something like 19,000 kilometres of open channel, and that's all piped and the beauty of this is that system now is still only on 20 per cent, it still hasn't rained a lot up there, but at just 20 per cent, because the whole system is piped, there is four years of guaranteed water security. That's a system that was losing nine litres out of every ten, you put ten litres in and only one would get through to the farmer, so you can piped these systems, but my own view is it wouldn't be realistic in the next decade or so to imagine sealing every open channel across Victoria and across Australia, but there's no doubt that this works, there's absolutely no doubt that when you upgrade the system, seal some of the pipes, put in the best metering, put in the most sophisticated irrigation equipment, you get huge water savings and we've seen that in Wimmera Mallee, we're seeing it in food-bowl.
JOURNALIST: I'll just ask the Prime Minister, are you under more pressure now to reform gay marriage laws given Mark Arbib's comments in The Australian this morning?
PM: Well Mark Arbib's made statements about his personal views, this is a matter that gets ultimately decided at our national conference as a matter for the whole of the Australian Labor Party, so Mark's expressed his personal views and no doubt he will take them to the next national conference which is the proper place to have this debate.
JOURNALIST: I think he also expressed his view for a conscience vote, if I'm not wrong, do you support that on this issue?
PM: Once again we have currently a Party policy, the Party policy's crystal clear, that marriage is between a man and a woman, that's what the Marriage Act says and that's how it should stay.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) conference next?
PM: Well this is a binding policy of the Labor conference, so the proper process here, if anybody's got a view about changing the policy or indeed how we vote on it, is to take that matter to the Party conference which is some time away.
JOURNALIST: It does seem to be an issue that's gaining a lot of traction and momentum?
PM: I think it's an issue where there's community debate, but also it's an issue where there are divided community views, I've been very clear about my view, I believe the Marriage Act should stay in the form that it is, there will be community debate because there's community debate, inevitably there will be debate in political parties as well, and I think Mark Arbib is signalling that when that debate happens in the proper place in the Labor Party, he'll have something to say during it.
JOURNALIST: And Prime Minister why has Australia made the new defence arrangements with the United States and reported in The Australian today?
PM: We'll be here in Melbourne tomorrow and Monday, in part I'm here to participate in events associated with the Ministerial Dialogue between the United States and Australia on foreign policy and defence questions. I very much thank the Premier of Victoria for having me and the Defence Minister and the Foreign Minister, and of course Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and also Secretary Gates here in Victoria for these important discussions.
What you've seen in today's newspaper is speculation about what might come out of those talks, in those talks we anticipate discussing America's Force Posture Review in our region, we anticipate that will give rise to a process of discussion about how that Force Posture Review has implications for Australia, it could have implications in further joint exercises, it could have implications in further joint sharing of facilities, but that's to be worked through arising from these talks.
JOURNALIST: And Prime Minister you did promise Hillary Clinton a good time, how do you plan to have a good time?
PM: Well Melbourne is a very good place to have a good time, so whether it's sauntering on Melbourne's streets, grand boulevards or in our back lanes, whether it's shopping, whether it's talking to our great sporting identities or just enjoying beautiful Victorian weather, there's a lot for Secretary Clinton to do here in Melbourne.
JOURNALIST: And have you been following the State campaign, how do you think the Premier is travelling?
PM: Well you would anticipate I think that as colleagues and friends obviously I'm very admiring of John Brumby's leadership of this State. I believe when you look at what's been achieved here in Victoria under the Brumby Government, that Australia is well positioned coming out of the global financial crisis, we're coming out strong, but Victoria is particularly well positioned because of the policies of the Brumby Government, because of its leadership in innovation, its leadership in issues like the one we're talking about today: food production, its leadership in jobs and job expansion in this State. Victoria I think is coming out particularly strong and with the right management I believe that gives Victoria tremendous opportunities for the future.
JOURNALIST: Did you watch the debate last night?
PM: I didn't have the opportunity to watch the debate last night, I was attending a function. Sorry, I would have liked to but I didn't have the opportunity.
JOURNALIST: And Premier obviously good to have the Prime Minister by your side in the first week?
BRUMBY: Yeah fantastic, yeah, and it's great and I hope I expressed clearly before just how fantastic this announcement is today and we've been working on this for some time, it's something I believe in, something Tim believes in, it's about, in essence, having your cake and eating it too, it's about how you secure agriculture, how you secure regional Victoria, and you secure the environment. And to get this decision from the Prime Minister today it's just fantastic and I'll see a bit more of the Prime Minister over the weekend with a couple of activities as well, and to have her full support, working with us, particularly in relation to investment and jobs and regional development is just a wonderful partnership and I think it'll serve our State well.
JOURNALIST: You've had a bit of time to reflect on the debate, how do you think you went? A lot of the commentators are saying that Ted Ballieu might have come out on top?
BRUMBY: Look I was happy with the debate, I've said that to you last night, and I think debates are a good thing and I thought there was some good questions last night, some tough questions last night, but it was really an opportunity for me I think to make my position known about the importance of jobs, the importance of the economy, keeping the Budget in surplus, continuing to grow our State, and investing in education and health. That's what you'll get from my leadership and our Government, we're very clear about that, you'll get a strong economy, you'll get strong jobs growth, you'll get investment in education, and you'll get investment in health and you'll get us too, tackling the issue of climate change in really serious way.
JOURNALIST: Was Ted Ballieu playing by the rules last night during the debate?
BRUMBY: I'll leave that to the commentators, there'll be a hundred different views about that last night, and I think it's good we've had a lot of our Ministers out and debates as well, we've got the Burvale I think next week, so I'm looking forward to that. So it's a good, it's all part of this.
JOURNALIST: Do you think his interjections were over the top though?
BRUMBY: Well they didn't bother me, I don't know what the viewers thought of them, but they didn't bother me.