This is the fourth time, in my three short weeks here as a Senator, that I have risen to speak about the plight of the Murray-Darling Basin.

The Greens have been at the forefront of calls for immediate Government action for years.  We have been campaigning for freshwater flows for the lower lakes and the Coorong, and for the Government to prioritise the environmental needs of the lower stretches of the Murray.

During Question Time on Monday, I asked the Minister whether or not a risk assessment had been conducted by the Department on the devastating ecological and community impacts flooding the lower lakes with saltwater, before any government contemplated committing such an environmentally devastating policy move.

Once you let saltwater into the lakes, they will be damaged in a way that will never allow them to fully recover.
 
In response to the Greens’ call for a risk assessment to occur as a matter of urgency, Minister Wong’s office essentially passed the buck onto the South Australian Labor Government to make the decision. 

We want to see leadership on the plight of the Murray.  Instead of continuous buck passing, we need to see immediate and drastic action. 

While I agree with Senator Fisher that we have yet to see any real evidence-based policy initiatives to address the urgency of the Murray-Darling water crisis, it is important to recognise the devastating impact that decades of inaction and continued mismanagement, from both sides of the Chamber, has had on the current state of Australia’s greatest river system.

We must see positive action from the Government -- both state and federal -- to allocate the lower Murray its fair share of freshwater flows to alleviate the ongoing damage that years of ineffective policy has had on our Storm Boy country.

The fact that the Minister for Water, or her Department, has not even consulted with the Australia’s leading scientific body, the CSIRO, is alarming.

Surely this would have been considered a logical step in making recommendations on how to secure freshwater for the lower lakes and Coorong.

The current Senate Inquiry – due to table its report at the end of this month – has been of immense value, particularly in providing  South Australia with key information on how to manage and obtain its water, not only for the sake of our capital city and its residents, but for the sake of the lower lakes and Coorong too.
The ongoing management of the lower lakes and Coorong will benefit by Adelaide reducing its dependence on the Murray, as more water will make it down for those vital environmental flows.

It is crunch time for the Federal Government.  We are in desperate need to find new sources of water as soon as possible, and freshwater flows must be restored before to the Coorong and lower lakes before we see this Storm Boy country fade into a distant memory.