Former Murray-Darling Basin Authority chairman warns of water misunderstandings as ministers meet
“It would be a disaster if NSW walked away” from the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, warns the man formerly in charge of overseeing it.
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- Murray Darling Basin Plan faces its toughest test
- Lower Lakes community: Don’t flood us with saltwater
The Murray–Darling Basin Plan risks being derailed by politics rather than facts as state leaders prepare to meet on Tuesday, according to the man who last headed up the authority overseeing the scheme.
Neil Andrew, who retired as chairman of the Murray–Darling Basin Authority in February, said it would be “a disaster” if New South Wales walked away from the plan.
It comes as water ministers of various basin governments will meet in Brisbane, following calls from upstream irrigators to “can the plan”.
“The problem right now is the drought and it’s convenient to blame the plan for the lack of water in NSW,” Mr Andrew said.
“The resentment being felt in NSW is being fuelled in part by a misunderstanding of the (water) licensing system and a total misunderstanding of the Lower Lakes.”
Over the past few weeks, calls have been made to install a “Lock 0” weir at Wellington, and remove the Murray Mouth’s barrages, flooding the Lower Lakes with seawater and providing more water for upstream irrigators.
But locals have said that would spell “ecological disaster” in the region, where animal species are adapted to current salinity levels.
“The emphasis ought to be on the need to get a million tonnes of salt out of the basin and into the sea every year,” Mr Andrew said. “Water has to flow out to the sea because otherwise, the whole system becomes salinated.”
“It would be a disaster if NSW walked away.”
Meantime, NSW and Victoria have commissioned an independent report which they say shows the Murray-Darling Basin Plan will not achieve its goals of running larger environmental flows down the river system.
NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey told The Australian there needed to be “a rethink of how the plan works”.
“At the time the MDBP was conceived, it used the best available science. This does not mean it’s the best science,” she said.
Renmark Irrigation Trust general manager Rosalie Auricht said the Murray Darling Basin Plan was “absolutely essential”.
“If you don’t have a well thought-through plan and compliance with that plan … you don’t have communities up here anymore. Without water, the communities collapse,” Ms Auricht said.
The trust delivers water to about 600 irrigators in the Riverland, and has used environmental water – achieved through the plan – to flood wetlands that had dried out due to increasing water extraction.
It has resulted in animals returning to the replenished habitat.
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Ms Auricht hoped the state’s leaders could put politics aside and do what was best for the various communities relying on a healthy basin.
Environment Minister David Speirs called for “mature, balanced leadership” at the Ministerial
Council to continue progressing the plan.
“Over recent weeks we have heard a litany of conspiracy theories regarding the Coorong and the Lower Lakes that South Australia firmly rejects,” Mr Speirs said.
“Talk about removing the barrages is nonsense and we won’t be making any changes to water
sharing agreements that have stood the test of time.
“Blowing up the plan” would result in buybacks he said, which would be the “worst result for regional communities”.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young labelled the NSW and Victoria-commissioned report “nothing but a thin veneer” to hide the states’ real motivations.
“Continued environmental vandalism of the river will lead to its eventual collapse, which is where we started when the plan was first conceived at the height of the Millennium Drought,” Ms Hanson-Young said.
She said the Ministerial Council should be about working towards returning environmental flows to the river and “not actively starving it”.
What the states are saying
NSW
Deputy Premier John Barilaro has threatened to walk away from the scheme amid calls from irrigators to “can the plan”. The anguish has arisen as water becomes increasingly scarce amid the drought. Water Minister Melinda Pavey has said enough water is flowing to the sea from SA every three months to support regional NSW for a year. NSW and Victoria have also commissioned a report, which they say has found the Murray-Darling Basin Plan cannot achieve its goals of running bigger environmental flows down the river.
VICTORIA
Water Minister Lisa Neville has said the goal of completing the plan to restore more water to the river for its health by 2024 was “unachievable”. “What we’re talking about here is creating a man-made flood to achieve environmental benefits – yet what we’ve found is that under the current modelling, neither the community nor the environment will get a good outcome,” she said. Irrigators and the Victorian Farmers Federation are demanding the South Australian Government curbs an estimated 900GL lost in evaporation from the Lower Lakes.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Environment Minister David Speirs has ruled out the push to shut off the Lower Lakes, and said he is focused on delivering South Australia’s obligations under the plan.
“The plan is critical in striking the balance between delivering water to communities that rely on the river and ensuring the future health of the Basin environment,” he said.
“Blowing up the plan will cost communities, the environment and farmers, and importantly, it will not deliver a single extra drop of water.”
QUEENSLAND
Farmers will be slugged up to $100,000 to install water meters that they say will be measuring dry river beds under a new plan to manage the state’s supplies.