Water Amendment (Water for the Environment Special Account) Bill 2012

The majority voted against a Nationals amendment introduced by Senator Barnaby Joyce, the Leader of the Nationals in the Senate.

The amendment would have inserted a new section 86AEA, titled "Limit on purchase of water access rights". This new section stated: The total amount of water access rights purchased by, or on behalf of, the Commonwealth since 2009, whether with amounts debited from the Water for the Environment Special Account or otherwise for the purposes of the Basin Plan, must not exceed 1500 gigalitres.

Senator Joyce explained that this amendment "is about reinforcing the coalition's strong belief in the buyback cap",(See Senator Joyce's full explanation of the amendment and the associated debate here. The amendment is referred to as Nationals amendment (4) on sheet 7336 and the relevant discussion began at 12:31 pm. ) which was also reflected by an earlier Nationals amendment moved by Senator Joyce.(That amendment is available here. ) According to the Department of the Environment website: "Water buybacks obtain water for the environment from irrigators who offer their water entitlement for sale".(That website is available here. )

Background to the bill

The bill(A copy of the bill, its explanatory memoranda and amendments are available here. ) was introduced to establish an Environment Special Account to fund projects that protect and restore environmental assets of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) and protect water dependent biodiversity of the MDB.(Read more about the bill in this bills digest (696 KB).) The projects will include those that increase the available environmental water in the MDB by 450 Gigalitres.

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