KALLEE BUCHANNAN:
The Prime Minister is in Rockhampton talking up his Government’s commitment to water security. Malcolm Turnbull says his Government will invest $130 million of the $500 million national water fund to build the Rookwood Weir near Rockhampton if the State Government matches that funding. I asked him if he had that commitment from the state.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the state government proposed the project, they sought 50 per cent funding for it, they’re preparing the final business case on it. We’re concerned that they seem to be losing their enthusiasm for it, obviously there are political issues that they have to grapple with – with the Greens in the inner city. The reality is that unless we harness water in Northern Australia more effectively, we are not going to be able to increase agricultural output in Northern Australia and that is critically important to our future. Above all, to take advantage of those big export markets in Asia that we’ve opened up with our big free trade deals, especially China of course.
KALLEE BUCHANNAN:
So do you have a strategy to get around some of those issues we’ve seen for example with the feasibility funding not flowing as quickly as some of the projects in Queensland would have liked to have seen?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the funding is flowing in exactly the way the Queensland Government agreed. There is an arrangement, which Queensland signed up to for the feasibility funding to be paid after the benchmarks have been reached, after the studies have been completed, and that’s the way it’s been in the past. That’s the way it operates, it all goes through the State Government, they signed up to it and again we should just get on with it. We’re concerned that there’s too much politics coming in to this. You know, Mark Twain once said Whisky is for drinking water is for fighting over – well we shouldn’t be fighting over water, we should be focused over the development of the water infrastructure that is critically important to Australia’s future as a great agricultural producer and exporter.
KALLEE BUCHANNAN:
But how can you expect the state governments to not be political on this issue when yesterday the Deputy Prime Minister called them communists?
PRIME MINISTER:
I didn’t hear that but they need to be – all of us need to focus on the substance and ignore the rhetoric on all sides, we should be focused on delivering the infrastructure that we need. And that’s what we are here to do.
KALLEE BUCHANNAN:
You’re listening to the Queensland Country Hour. I’m speaking to the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull and speaking about delivering on water security, do you intend to continue to implement the Murray Darling Basin Plan as it stands now?
PRIME MINISTER:
The Murray-Darling Basin plan as set out in the 2007 Water Act was actually done while I was the Minister for Water, so I’ve got a long history in this area. When the Labor Party came in in 2007, they changed the approach to buy-backs. And they had a – what you can describe as a no regrets open tender buy-back policy and they spent over their six years, over $2 billion on non-strategic open tender buy-backs that had very significant impacts on a number of regional communities.
Now the whole idea of water buy-backs, as originally conceived in the plan that was put together when I was the Minister and John Howard was the Prime Minister, was that buy-backs would be strategic, and it would be focusing our investment on water saving infrastructure. So, you know, piping channels, lining channels, ensuring that we had better on-farm irrigation methods so that we made every drop count – so that we got more food and fibre from the same or less water. And of course what was saved came back to the environment and then buy-backs were to be very strategic and targeted.
Labor had a scatter-gun approach to it and of course that created a lot of hardship. So what we’re focused on is buy-backs that are strategic and that we want to focus on in ensuring that we continue to support projects that achieve environmentally equivalent outcomes – so for example using infrastructure to water a wetland or forest more efficiently. In other words being smarter about it.
KALLEE BUCHANNAN:
So does that mean for a town like Dirranbandi where further buy-backs are predicted to potentially lead to a loss of 18 per cent of their jobs that you would consider putting those buy-backs on hold?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don’t want to comment on that particular town because I said I was the Water Minister, that was a long time ago that was in 2007. But the – I can just say to you that the object of buy-backs should be very strategic. When I was setting up the Water Act and the National Plan for water in 2007, what we were focused on was if taken irrigation area, improving the productivity of that irrigation area by a whole range of measures and that these were typically ones that would ensure that channels operated more efficiently in every respect, that on farm irrigation was more efficient. You know that water was not wasted in other words. And if there was an area, a part of that irrigation area that it was agreed was not able to be improved in that way, that would be the area that you would focus your buy-backs on. And this should be done by agreement, and this was the way when I was meeting with the leaders of the various irrigation areas, that’s how we approached it.
What Labor did, as I said, went in to the market in a very unco-ordinated way and failed to take into account the regional impacts. Buy-backs have a role but they have to be supportive and reinforcing the strategic objective of ensuring that we have the infrastructure in place to enable us to use water more efficient and as I said, produce more food and fibre with the same water or even less water, as we know you can. I mean if you reduce seepage, if you reduce evaporation, if you reduce wastage because channels are poorly designed or have deteriorated over time, you can do a lot more with the same or less water.
KALLEE BUCHANNAN:
Farmers are calling for certainty on the tax arrangements for backpackers that come to Australia to work and holiday; I asked the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull how he would deliver it.
PRIME MINISTER:
We’re calling on the Senate to deliver that certainty too. The changes to the backpacker tax were passed through the House of Representatives, and the legislation is now in the Senate. So we’re calling on the Senate to pass that legislation.
KALLEE BUCHANNAN:
Would you be willing to compromise on the passenger movement tax in order to get legislation through the Senate?
PRIME MINISTER:
We’ve got a very fair set of measures that enables us to achieve the objective of making the backpacker tax arrangements competitive with other countries, it’s fair, it’s obviously only fair that working holiday makers pay some tax in Australia and so what we’ve got here is a fair compromise and we’re urging the Senate to get on with it and approve it.
KALLEE BUCHANNAN:
The tourism industry though doesn’t think that that passenger movement tax is fair. They’re saying your upping the revenue you’re getting from it but not improving services.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it’s important that we live within our means and we have to make these – everyone has got a – every interest has got a claim but it’s important that we get the balance right so that working holiday makers pay tax, they pay less tax than had previously been proposed so that it is competitive with other countries who are competing for this backpacker labour. But at the same time we have to make sure that these measures as we change them don’t undermine our budget position. You’ve got to remember we have a very large deficit – we are working hard to bring that budget back into balance. I know the backpackers are generally younger people but we have to focus on our younger people, our children and our grandchildren and not live beyond our means such that we shoulder them with an absolutely unsustainable mountain of debt to have to pay off in their time.
KALLEE BUCHANNAN:
The Trade Minister was in London this week to launch the $10 million campaign to attract some of those working holiday makers back to Australia. It didn’t go particularly smoothly and has been described by some as a fizzer. How do you expect that this program will help repair the damage done to those numbers of working holiday makers coming to Australia?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Australia is a very attractive place. Lots of people want to live here. Lots of people want to holiday here. And I am sure that we will continue to see strong growth in working holiday makers coming to Australia. The tax changes that we’ve passed through the lower house, through the House of Representatives will support that, support that attraction and I am very confident that we will continue to see strong flows of working holiday makers, and of course raising awareness overseas about the opportunities here are important too.
KALLEE BUCHANNAN:
And just finally Prime Minister, the Country Women’s Association in Queensland is today considering a proposal that would let men join the association as non-voting supporters. Would you be interested in joining the CWA?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, you know if I received an invitation I would be honoured. There is so much remarkable, admirable work done by the Country Women’s Association. It is one of those organisations that is quintessentially Australian, that embodies all of the selflessness and service and community spirit that we so admire and we all seek to emulate. So, the Country Women’s Association – three cheers for the CWA. And if they were to invite me to be a member, I would be honoured.
KALLEE BUCHANNAN:
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, thanks for your time on the Country Hour today.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks so much.
Ends