TRANSCRIPT

Subjects: mining, increasing the humanitarian intake, health of asylum seekers in detention, environmental protections, Tony Abbott

The Greens have today announced they will move for a Senate inquiry into the Murray Darling Basin Authority's draft plan when Parliament resumes next week so parliamentarians can scrutinise what is being proposed.

"We want an answer to the basic question why did the MDBA choose 2,750 GL when the science says the river system needs at least 4,000 GL," Greens' water spokesperson, Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, said.

"The basin authority has yet to justify that figure.

The Australian Greens have today called on the Gillard government to release legal advice on whether the Murray Darling Basin Authority's draft plan complies with the Commonwealth Water Act.

"As the MDBA head today confirmed in a Senate estimates committee hearing that legal advice was done, now is the time for the government to let Australians see it," Greens' water spokesperson, Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, said.

"They clearly have the legal advice on the draft plan, despite last week declining to release it when I questioned the government about its existence.

The Gillard government should heed the advice of the Wentworth Group's report into the Murray Darling Basin Authority's draft plan and commit to having the flawed science corrected. The government must ensure the parliament is given a legal and credible plan that will deliver a healthy, working river and is environmentally sound, the Australian Greens said today.

On Monday 28 November the Murray Darling Basin Authority released a Draft Plan for winding back the over-allocation of water and restoring precious ecosystems so they can keep sustaining Australia. But the Draft Plan is a huge disappointment - it won't return enough water to save the system which means it risks wasting nearly $10 billion of public funds.

The 20-week community consultation process will go until April 2012.

You can have your say during the MDBA consultation.

Opening the Labor Party conference, Julia Gillard told her party faithful she wanted the ALP to be the party that says "yes to the future".

Yet the Prime Minister spent the next three days advocating for the resurrection of the old, tired conservative policies of John Howard. On policies covering asylum seekers, uranium and same-sex marriage, Labor's leader backed the stance of the former ultra-conservative Liberal prime minister.

The CSIRO's assessment of the Murray Darling Basin Authority's draft plan backs up what the Australian Greens have been saying all along, by showing water and ecology targets will not be met without greater volumes being allocated to the environment.

"The science was made to fit around the figure of 2,800 GL, which was then cut by another 50 GL in the actual draft plan," Greens' Murray Darling Basin and water spokesperson, Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, said today.

Audio from Sarah's door stop in Adelaide on the science behind the Murray Darling draft plan and the tabling of a report from an independent inquiry into the Villawood and Christmas Island riots.

What a disappointment. That's what I was thinking upon reading the draft plan released by the Murray Darling Basin Authority yesterday.

The Australian Greens say they are extremely disappointed by the Murray Darling Basin Authority's draft plan which appears to be repeating the mistakes of overlooking the environment's needs, fails to effectively tackle the problems of over-allocation and risks wasting billions of taxpayers' dollars.