Subjects: Sri Lanka attacks; Water buybacks; Great Barrier Reef Foundation
EO&E…………………………………………………………
ALI CARABINE:
Simon Birmingham, Good Morning.
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
Good morning Ali.
ALI CARABINE:
If I could first ask you about Sri Lanka, the death toll has now topped 200 including 35 foreigners, have any Australians been killed or injured in these attacks, what’s the Government’s latest advice here?
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
Ali these are terrible, distressing and tragic circumstances, and of course our hearts and sympathies go out to the beautiful people of Sri Lanka for this terrible, terrible incident and of course to once again see people attacked in a place of worship is, such a distressing thing for people right around the world, our High Commission in Sri Lanka has been working closely to monitor circumstances and to ascertain the whereabouts of Australians, we are not aware of any Australian loss of life, I understand there may be an Australian injured, but I’m awaiting further details on that, certainly our Foreign Minister Marise Payne is being in close contact with the High Commissioner and continues to ensure that any support we can provide is made available to of course our High Commission in their dealings with Australians but also the Sri Lankan Government should they request it.
ALI CARABINE:
As far as we know no group has claimed responsibility for this outrage, does the Government have any advice on who might be behind the attack?
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
No, the Government is not seeking to move head of investigations, that rightly will be led by the Sri Lankan authorities, first and foremost out thoughts are with those who have suffered loss of life, the terrible assault on individuals holidaying but also the fact that those celebrating the Christian holiday of Easter Sunday were attacked in a place of worship and this is of course something that is a reminder of the importance of ensuring that safety and wellbeing of people and also of making sure people do always look and follow travel advisory warnings as closely as they can.
ALI CARABINE:
Minister, it has been a very distressing 24 hours. If I could take you to the issue of water buybacks, the Greens and Centre Alliance both want a royal commission into the $80 million spent buying flood waters from this company Eastern Australia Agriculture, there is a strong body of opinion that this water had little environmental benefit for the Murray Darling, why should anyone see this as anything other than a monumental waste of taxpayers money let alone verging on corruption, which is Richard Di Natale’s take?
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
Well that allegation is scurrilous and baseless, let’s step through the various claims here, it’s said that there’s little environmental benefit but in fact there’s clear environmental benefits to the Narran Lakes-RAMSAR listed wetland of international importance, and the Culgoa floodplain, in fact the previous Labor Government had bought temporary water from the same company for the same purpose in terms of providing environmental water flows to the Narran Lakes, so the environmental arguments are clear in terms of the benefit of this.
ALI CARABINE:
Sorry to interrupt but this was floodwater not river flow, did the Government have legal right over the water outside of the property?
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
And indeed part of the purchase price for this, was to remove infrastructure to ensure the flow of this water was available for the environmental purposes for which is was purchased, so it was a long and extensive negotiation lead by departmental officials in terms of setting the price and terms for buying these water licences, for removing the necessary infrastructure, so the environmental benefits could be realised, and the Department responsible for water has gone on the record at Senate Estimates and elsewhere on no less than three occasions in March of 2018, April of 2018 and April this year outlining precisely the process that was followed, how the price was set and the environmental benefits and all of this information is publicly available.
ALI CARABINE:
How was the price set? $2745 per megalitre which I understand was a record for Murray Darling Basin buyback, why was so much money paid for this water? When so many water analysts are disputing its actual benefit to the waterway, the Murray Darling Basin?
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
So again lets deal with some of the misleading facts that are being propagated there, the QLD Labor Government, State Labor Government wrote to the Federal Government proposing this potential purchase in 2015, the purchase itself is not the largest environmental purchase ever, it was a $78.9 million purchase, but in fact in 2008 the then Federal Labor Government spent $303 million in a single purchase, far, far greater in terms of the price that was paid to purchase entitlements, it’s part of more than 2100 billion litres of water that has been recovered by Labor and Liberal National Governments for flows down the Murray.
ALI CARABINE:
But did that $300 million go to a company domiciled in the Cayman Islands?
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
Well that went to an Argentina company actually, so it was a company…
ALI CARABINE:
Argentina isn’t a tax haven though?
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
Ali, were talking about purchasing water for the environment. Frankly the Greens are usually complaining there is not enough purchase happening, now your attacking the purchase based on the company that owns the water, whereas the point here is that this water was purchased for clear environmental outcomes, it was not as is claimed the largest purchase ever made, and in terms of the allegations about the price that was paid, the original company request was for more than $5000 per megalitre, the price paid in the end was for a little over $2700 per megalitre, and that included negotiations around the removal of infrastructure and so forth, and so the Environmental and Water Department officials involved in the negotiation clearly drove a bargain to make sure they got an appropriate and competitive market price in this regard.
ALI CARABINE:
So I take it if the Agriculture Department got a competitive price and it delivered benefits to the Murray-Darling, the Government will not countenance a Royal Commission?
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
The ANAO is already part of its extended work program already taking a look at the overall progress around water buybacks this year, we welcome that scrutiny and think a Royal Commission into allegations that are completely baseless would be a waste of time and money, and we’ve dealt here with the fact it is not a record price, that there are clearly environmental benefits, that the water officials involve have answered questions at Senate Estimates repeatedly and outlined all of the process. This is just an attempt by Bill Shorten and the Labor Party, Richard Di Natale and the Greens and others to create smear and innuendo where it is completely baseless.
ALI CARABINE:
Simon Birmingham, we only have a minute left, Labor has confirmed if it wins the election it will terminate the $444 million grant to the Great Barrier Reef foundation, the balance of the funding would then be dispersed to other agencies looking after the reef, would a Coalition Government ever try this one on again? Handing close to half a billion dollars to a very small ill-equipped group which didn’t even ask for the money in the first place.
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
Again we dispute the fact that its ill-equipped that it received millions of dollars from a Labor Government previously and we think that actually engaging the community as part of our record investment to protect the Great Barrier Reef is a positive thing and we will see many great things come from this grant and that fact that the Labor Party wants to rip funding away from community work in terms of saving and protecting the reef and environmental actions is frankly appalling and quite distressing in terms of support for the reef and making sure we generate private investment to go along side that public investment.
ALI CARABINE:
So you would do it all again?
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
I am simply defending the grant that has been made that is going to provide significant benefits in terms of environmental management of the reef, will also leverage private capital in terms of environmental support for the reef and I find it gobsmacking that the Labor Party seems to want to take an approach that would reduce the total sum invested in the reef and its protection for the future.
ALI CARABINE:
Simon Birmingham we’ll leave it there, thanks again for your time.
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
Thank you Ali.