Transcript: Penny Wong Interview Matthew Abraham and David Bevan, on ABC 891 Adelaide
Penny Wong
posted Thursday, 12 August 2010
WONG: Good morning to you both.
JOURNALIST: Now you have heard what Simon Birmingham has to say and you have also read the Sydney Morning Herald. Are you promising water that does not exist?
WONG: Can I just make something very clear. This is the same water that Tony Abbott has committed to buy. This is how you buy water. I have been on your program a number of times when we have had this discussion.
You buy a water entitlement. An annual amount is allocated to that entitlement which depends on how much it rains.
This is the same water that Tony Abbott and Simon Birmingham and Barnaby Joyce are saying they would buy unless there is some virtual Barnaby planet where magically you have a different type of system where you can have as much water as you want.
JOURNALIST: You just heard Simon Birmingham, and he says no, we will deliver 150 gigalitres of water to the Lower Lakes and the Coorong. Now that is what he said. Now the question to you is, the question for you Penny Wong is have you told South Australians, or has the Prime Minister told South Australians that you have delivered 900 billion litres of water over the last three years?
WONG: Well I am very happy you asked me about the $150 billion because that is a very important issue. This is for the Coorong, not the Kooyong, the Coorong. That announcement that Tony Abbott has made that is simply a short term fix that does not improve the long term health of the Murray mouth and the Coorong which is what we need to do. It is 150 billion litres of temporary water that is precisely that. It is simply temporary. It disappears after a season. What you need to do is to return water to the River for the long term and the medium term. You have to reduce how much water you are taking out of it.
JOURNALIST: What we are asking you Minister, is has the Prime Minister said that Labor has already returned 900 billion litres of water to the Murray?
WONG: The Prime Minister has made very clear we have, as I have for the last three years, we have purchased water entitlement. We have purchased 900 billion litres of water entitlement.
JOURNALIST: Yes but an entitlement is not the same as water.
WONG: And as I have said on your program many, many times. This is precisely how the water market works.
JOURNALIST: So how much real water has been returned then?
WONG: And on average the 900 billion, on average, should provide around 627 billion litres of water depending on how much it rains.
JOURNALIST: OK so now we are getting somewhere. So you think it’s closer to 627 billion litres of real water that has been returned?
WONG: Of actual allocation.
JOURNALIST: Of real water.
WONG: It is actual allocation.
JOURNALIST: Has the Prime Minister said that you have returned 900 billion litres of water to the system?
WONG: Look David, the Prime Minister and I have always been clear you purchase water entitlement. This is the only way you can purchase water entitlement. Frankly, the focus on this by the Opposition is nothing more than a desperate attempt to get away from the division we saw yesterday when we had members of the Liberal Party advocating Labor’s policy.
So I have been very upfront for a number of years on your program about this. We purchase licences. That is the only way you can purchase water. It is the only way Tony Abbott will be able to purchase water over the long term. How much is allocated against those licences? Obviously that will depend on how much it rains. But this is what the Government is purchasing because this is the way the water market works. This is, most importantly, how you actually return water to the River over the long term. Because what happens is, as it rains, the rivers actually get a larger share.
JOURNALIST: Now I know we have held up a lot of your morning already Penny Wong, but we have a lot of callers wanting to know whether you have seen the Plan. Listeners cannot believe you have not seen it.
WONG: I have been very clear. I have not seen the Plan. I have said that publicly on a number of occasions. I note that Barnaby was making some rather extraordinary allegations in another one of his rants yesterday. But I have been very clear. I have not seen it.
JOURNALIST: A final one I think we can squeeze in. David from Loxton has a question for Senator Penny Wong.
CALLER: Really it’s for Simon Birmingham. I’m an irrigator in the Riverland I, like many of us, had to sell my permanent water over the last year or so to survive. And we are relying on leasing water this coming year and years to come. And now it looks like we are going to be competing for lease water with Tony Abbott because he’s only leasing water on a temporary basis. And I agree with Labor. It’s not a permanent fix, it’s a quick fix. But it’s going to really impact on me because my lease water that I assumed I would be paying X dollars for will cost me X plus.
JOURNALIST: OK David thank you for your call. But didn’t Penny Wong just say that they’re both buying the same kind of water. Penny Wong?
WONG: We are not buying temporary water. I have said that. I have resisted calls to purchase temporary water for two reasons. One is that it is only temporary. You spend taxpayers’ money but the water evaporates or disappears after the season. And the second is we do understand that there are a lot of irrigators who do trade on the temporary market because it is the short term allocation and they make business decisions based on that. So it is a significant decision for the Government to enter that market and increase the price.
JOURNALIST: Senator thank you very much.
WONG: Good to speak with you both.
Tags: Buybacks, Penny, Water, Wong