Queensland Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce has grave concerns regarding water rights and the management of our nation’s water infrastructure following the recent debate over whether the Federal Government should take over responsibility for such infrastructure.

“If each State was to hand over its water rights then we may as well go the full hog and abolish states altogether.”

“Senator Heffernan’s launch into Federal management of water policy, one of the final aspects of the relevance of our states, should engender a wider debate. If he truly believes in this then he must answer as to what he believes the purpose of our states is. If Senator Heffernan does not believe in the purpose of our states then, pray tell, what is he doing in the Senate?”

“Does Senator Heffernan believe that one geographic area (for want of a better word) can discriminate against another by reason of the voting population?”

“They believed strongly at federation the rights of the states should be protected: that is why we have a Senate. The Senate is there to protect state rights. Senator Heffernan is doing this; he is protecting the rights of New South Wales. But, I do not believe Queensland would have joined the Federation had Senator Heffernan held the floor at federation discussions in Tenterfield and elsewhere, prior to 1901. “