Water policy
Tim McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (13:01): I would like to place on record my disappointment at the federal government’s decision to not take irrigation buybacks off the table. The recent ministerial council meeting was a missed opportunity to put the issue of additional buybacks to bed. Tanya Plibersek has left Victorians wondering again where the extra 450 gigalitres of environmental water will come from. Northern Victorian communities cannot be the whipping boy for the federal Labor government’s single-minded view. Postponing the decision about where the water will come from only makes me more suspicious that the federal Labor government is up to its old tricks. Our northern regional communities need assurances, not smoke and mirrors.