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But I do not want to dwell too much on the final outcomes as proposed in this legislation, because I want to suggest that they are correct, that they are an important advance in improving the environmental profile of inland Australia with respect to water and that water reform issues are being addressed in a way that this legislation does very well. I want to take a slightly different tack because, unlike the member for Farrer's, my electorate does not immediately adjoin the Murray-Darling. My interest in this matter goes back to the time that I was chair of the Australian Heritage Commission and conducted a number of reports into the natural heritage issues arising out of the flow of the Murray-Darling Basin system—not only in the Murray itself but also in the Darling. It is interesting to note that almost halfway across the continent, where the Darling River itself commences its flow, there is an extraordinary water catchment system, which—whilst it does not necessarily mirror that of the Snowy Mountains, because of the volume that comes through from the Snowy—is an example of the last remaining natural catchment system in the Murray-Darling Basin. It suggests that, if nature were allowed to take its own course in relation to our river systems in Australia, there would be good outcomes not only for the environment but also for those who take their livelihood from the land. Let me remind members of the House of the words of Henry Lawson, the famous Australian poet, who wrote about the Paroo River in a wonderful poem, as follows: It was a week from Christmas-time, As near as I remember, And half a year since, in the rear, We'd left the Darling Timber. The track was hot and more than drear; The day dragged out for ever; But now we knew that we were near Our Camp—the Paroo River. He goes on to speak about how they walked up and tried to find the Paroo River: With blighted eyes and blistered feet, With stomachs out of order, Half-mad with flies and dust and heat We'd crossed the Queensland Border. The great thing about this wonderful poem—written by one of our famous Australian poets, who is buried in my electorate—is that he was suggesting that the Paroo River system was in some ways the dead heart of Australia, in that nothing ever happened there and that no water would ever flow into the Murray-Darling system from there. But in fact he was wrong. Shortly afterwards in the Bulletin , in a very controversial poem written by his rival Banjo Paterson, this came out. I want to emphasise this, because I want to bring us back to the topic which I think inspired the report of the Hon. Robert Webster that I began my address with and which I think is at the heart of the government's reform program in relation to water issues in this country and which is therefore to be commended. This is what Banjo Paterson had to say about one aspect—the unreal aspect, if I can put it that way—of the Lawson poem, part of which I just read. He said: And no doubt you're better suited drinking lemon-squash in town. Yet, perchance, if you should journey down the very track you went In a month or two at furthest you would wonder what it meant, Where the sunbaked earth was gasping like a creature in its pain You would find the grasses waving like a field of summer grain, And the miles of thirsty gutters blocked with sand and choked with mud, You would find them mighty rivers with a turbid, sweeping flood—