Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has used a visit to Shepparton to rail against the shift to independents.
Responding to questions about the recovery of 450Gl of upwater under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan Mr Joyce said it was precisely because of an independent and Greens-backed Labor government that the problem exists.
“The independents are part of the reason that you have this conjecture, this question and this pressure,” he said.
Northern Victorian irrigators want assurances the 450Gl still to be recovered under the Murray-Darling Basing Plan to be delivered to South Australia won’t come from the region.
The Nationals failed in an attempt to move amendments to the Water Act last year that would have removed the 450Gl, abolished water buybacks and enable new “offset projects” to save water.
Instead, the only safeguard is that any recovery of the water has at the least a “neutral” social and economic impact on basin communities.
“The 450Gl was driven by South Australia but we made sure there are very stringent conditions, so you can’t do it if their is any social or economic detriment, you can’t do it,” Mr Joyce said.
The ALP remains committed to the plan, including the 450Gl and the potential use of buybacks.
Mr Joyce seized on that aspect to demand independent candidate for Nicholls Rob Priestly state whether he would support a Labor government in the event he was elected to a hung parliament.
Using a football analogy Mr Joyce said Mr Priestly needed to say which team he would play for.
“You put the jersey on in the change rooms and you run on ambiguously onto the paddock,” he said.
Asked how concerned he was about losing the seat of Nicholls Mr Joyce said he took nothing for granted, but the Nationals were not “sneaky” about who they were politically.
“You understand that one of the greatest honours you’ll ever have in your life is to represent this nation and that means you are going to have to make hard decisions, and the first hard decision you have to make is who you are going to be in the political process in Canberra, it isn’t multi-faceted.”
Mr Priestly said what the Nicholls electorate really needed was someone who would represent the interests of its irrigators and communities not vested interests in NSW and South Australia.
“It is ironic that Barnaby Joyce is talking about needing to be a member of the coalition to get things done, while at the same time talking about the Nationals’ failure to disarm the 450Gl despite being in government for nine years,” he said.
“This is a conservative electorate and I will respect that, but I will be hard-nosed about negotiating what is best for our community.’’