The Australian Greens say reports that the Murray Darling Basin Authority's forthcoming draft plan will include a minimum 2,800 gigalitres in sustainable diversion limits shows there will not be enough water to save the system.

"It's becoming increasingly clear the draft plan won't contain the bare minimum 4,000 GL scientists say is needed to ensure the river survives," Greens' Murray Darling Basin and water spokesperson, Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, said today.

Greens' Senator for South Australia Sarah Hanson-Young has won Senate support for a motion calling on the ABC to maintain its broadcast of SANFL games.

The motion won support from all parties and was co-sponsored by Senators Penny Wright (Greens), Nick Xenophon (Independent), Anne McEwen (Labor) and Simon Birmingham (Liberal). See full text below.

South Australian National Football League

Senator HANSON-YOUNG (South Australia) (13:15): The matter I rise to speak on today is one of great importance to my home state of South Australia. As people here would know, I am not only a proud South Australian but also a proud football supporter. Despite the fact that my team, the Double Blues-Sturt-is at the bottom of the SANFL ladder, it is all right; we still have the best ground in the league in the heart of Unley.

Senator HANSON-YOUNG (South Australia) (11:57): I, and also on behalf of Senators Wright, McEwen, Birmingham and Xenophon, move:
That the Senate-
(a) notes:
(i) the future of the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is in doubt, and
(ii) the South Australian Football Association was established in 1877 (later to become the SANFL) making it the oldest football league of any code in Australia and one of the oldest sporting codes in the world;
(b) recognises the coverage:

In Britain, the phone-hacking scandal has put Rupert Murdoch's media empire under unprecedented scrutiny. 

Questions are being asked about News Corporation's influence over British democracy - its capacity to make and break prime ministers and to set the policy agenda of the day.

In Australia, similar questions must also be asked. News Limited controls 70 per cent of our nation's print media, representing the greatest concentration of media ownership in the democratic world.

The Senate has this afternoon agreed to send the Malaysia deal to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee for inquiry and report back by September 22, 2011.

"The Greens have welcomed the Senate's decision to refer the inhumane Malaysian people swap deal to an inquiry because it will finally give the parliament the chance to scrutinise an arrangement which the government has refused to table," Greens' immigration spokesperson, Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, said today.

The Greens have welcomed the SA government's environmental water requirements study, which has been peer-reviewed by the Goyder Institute, to demonstrate what is needed to keep the Murray mouth open and ensure a healthy river system.

"We've always maintained that the protections the river needs must be based on scientific evidence," SA Greens senator and spokesperson for water and the Murray Darling Basin, Sarah Hanson-Young, said today.

Yesterday was a great day for the Greens. Our team in the Federal Parliament went from six to 10 with Governor-General Quentin Bryce presiding over the swearing-in of 12 senators from around the country who were elected in August last year.

The Australian Greens are calling on the federal government to alter the powers of the Foreign Investment Review Board to include water licences.

It comes amid an overwhelming response from everyday Australians toward the acquisition of prime farming land by foreign companies and shows the Federal government must act to ensure water allocation licences in the Murray Darling Basin and other part of the country are protected.

Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young and Senator-elect, Penny Wright, talk to the SA media on the SA Greens' numbers doubling in the Senate from July 1 as part of the Greens holding the balance of power in the new senate.