Mr BRUCE SCOTT (4:50 PM) —I rise today to speak about an issue which demonstrates that community consultation and proactive advocacy can triumph over bureaucracy. Two years ago the small but vibrant town of Dirranbandi in south-west Queensland in my electorate faced the possibility of becoming a ghost town as a result of actions of the Beattie Labor government. Mr Speaker, water rights are becoming increasingly sought after, as I am sure you are aware, and they are often fought over.

The Queensland government saw an opportunity to get quick money from the Commonwealth through the national action plan for water. However, in typical Beattie Labor government style, Queensland's arrogant Premier charged at the problem like a bull at a gate, and in his path was the very essence of what sustains the Dirranbandi economy. Cubbie Station is a large irrigation property. It is that property, along with many others that have been developed in recent times through the irrigation sector, that has injected life back into the Dirranbandi town and also the St George area. Premier Beattie proposed to shut down Cubbie Station and decommission Queensland Cotton's recently established cotton gin in a knee-jerk reaction to the federal government's national action plan for water.

With the future of a small town in my electorate hanging in the balance, my local member, Howard Hobbs, and my other state colleagues and I organised two public meetings to protest the Beattie government's proposals. Thanks to the overwhelming support of concerned townspeople and farmers at the first meeting, Premier Beattie's presence was secured for the second. It became obvious that closing Cubbie Station was simply not the answer to problems of water allocations and environmental flows in the system.

Today it is my absolute pleasure to be able to place on the record my respect for and gratitude to those who have made a significant advance towards solving Queensland's key resource management issue. I speak of the Condamine-Balonne catchment's water resource plan and overview report—a collaboration of extensive consultation with community, industry and government groups. Smartrivers, an organisation made up of local irrigators in support of sustainable water usage, was responsible for the enormous progress made by identifying solutions to distributing water allocations. The Lower Balonne Community Reference Group was appointed to advise the Queensland minister Stephen Robertson on the draft plan.

I am pleased that today's announcement by Minister Robertson will formally put in place the draft plan for the Condamine-Balonne catchment area, which now covers an area of some 124,500 square kilometres, which represents roughly half Queensland's section of the Murray-Darling Basin. This announcement today will give water users on both sides of the border—in Queensland and New South Wales—greater certainty and will ensure beneficial natural flows for the rivers and floodplains as well as the Narran Lakes system in New South Wales. Greater certainty will also be obtained through the conversion of existing water licences to volumetric tradable allocations.

For the information of those who could only be described as ill-informed and who are of the opinion that Queensland uses more than its fair share of water from the Murray-Darling system, let me place today on the public record these statistics: Queensland contributes only one per cent of the water that reaches the River Murray, and it extracts 2.6 per cent of the water from the entire MurrayDarling system. Compare that to New South Wales, which extracts 50.8 per cent of the water in the MurrayDarling system. We in Queensland deliver some 52 per cent of our water over the border into New South Wales.

Today's announcement in relation to the Condamine-Balonne river system has evolved through lengthy community consultation, acknowledging that the sustainability of the area's water resources goes hand in hand with the sustainability of existing towns. Meeting obligations for downstream flow is paramount to the success of water management, and today's announcement sets out to achieve a healthy sharing of one of Australia's most valuable resources. The Condamine-Balonne water resource plan which the minister announced today is the culmination of extensive work and cooperation on behalf of the Dirranbandi community, recognising that water rights are property rights.

The lesson today for the Premier of Queensland is to learn from this experience. He should now also pick up the plan that has been brought forward by the Productivity Commission in relation to native vegetation, because the plan that he has in place now is fundamentally flawed. He has played cheap politics with natural resources in Queensland, and he must now be prepared to look at the recommendations of the Productivity Commission in relation to native vegetation and biodiversity and have that discussed at the next COAG meeting so that we have a national approach to native vegetation and biodiversity. (Time expired)

The SPEAKER —Before I recognise the member for Hasluck, I point out to her and the House that the chair inevitably finds itself in a situation whenever it gives an inch that a mile is taken. I had a situation not unlike hers with the member for Herbert some time ago, and I required the member for Herbert to remove what he had on his desk because it was much too prominent and way outside the standing orders. I am exercising a good deal of tolerance to the member for Hasluck, who has consulted both my office and the Clerk's office, and I remind her that the capacity of any other people to have the standing orders loosened to their interest will depend entirely on the discretion she shows in dealing with this issue.