NSW demands SA ‘pull its weight’ on water just weeks after desal deal
South Australia’s water minister has rebuked the NSW government over its claim that SA needs to “pull its weight” by letting salt water flood lower Murray wetlands.
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Hostilities over the River Murray have intensified as Water Minister David Speirs rebuked a stinging attack from a NSW Government desperate to secure water for upstream irrigators.
Mr Speirs yesterday ruled out bowing to a NSW call for SA to “pull its weight” and remove the barrages near the Murray mouth to allow sea water to enter Lake Alexandrina.
The Advertiser can also reveal NSW has failed to finalise any of the 20 water plans it committed to implementing as part of a federally agreed plan to conserve water across the Murray-Darling Basin.
Mr Speirs labelled as “bizarre” NSW deputy premier John Barilaro’s swipe at SA and his call to flood the Lower Lakes with salt water to save river water for upstream irrigators battling drought conditions.
Mr Speirs rejected the call to remove barrages and construct a lock or weir near Wellington. He said this idea was “extensively studied during the Millennium drought and I can categorically rule this out”.
Mr Barilaro said it was “just not fair” that SA irrigators had access to their full water allocation this year, while some NSW irrigators had no water.
“(The comments are) particularly bizarre, given just two weeks ago we agreed to turn on our desalination plant to help support drought-affected farmers across the country,” Mr Speirs said.
“While there are some who want to drag us back to the bad old days when there was no water flowing down the river, what is needed now is mature, balanced leadership from all Basin jurisdictions to deliver what has been agreed for the benefit of all those who rely on this precious resource.”
Mr Barilaro has threatened to withdraw NSW from the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, the controversial strategy backed by the Federal Government in 2012 to save the river system.
He has indicated NSW would not support the recovery of an extra 450 gigalitres of water, negotiated by SA in the Basin Plan, which would lift the water restored to the system from 2750 to 3200GL.
“We just don’t have the ability to keep giving up water,” he said while visiting Bourke on the Darling River. “We are fighting for Team NSW.
“We have got communities on their knees, irrigators falling over and the future of parts of regional NSW are under the pump while South Australia continues to get water. That’s just not fair.”
NSW irrigators will march on Canberra on Monday and Tuesday and set up a “Water Embassy” protesting cuts to their water access.
They are also calling for “Lock Zero” to be built near Wellington, cutting flow of the Murray to the Lower Lakes and Coorong to reduce evaporation of river water – a move experts say would doom the estuary.
The Coorong and Lower Lakes are Ramsar-listed as wetlands of international importance.
Former SA River Murray Minister and former chair of the National Water Commission Karlene Maywald said it was “absurd to suggest that South Australia is the cause of all the woes in NSW”.
“I am concerned that Mr Barilaro is making statements that are not based on fact,” she said. “Lock Zero and removing the barrages would most likely be the death of the Coorong and turn the Lakes into a dead sea.”
Mrs Maywald said NSW should look to SA for advice on managing the system in drought.
“During the Millennium drought, the SA section of the Murray-Darling was pushed to the brink of collapse,” she said. “We did our bit … to shore up SA’s water security. This time it’s the Barwon-Darling that is on the brink of collapse and rather than blaming SA, NSW could learn a lesson or two from the actions we have put in place.”
Communities in the Murray-Darling Basin are bracing for a potentially catastrophic season as drought tightens its grip this summer.
Towns are running out of water, irrigators are unable to grow crops and native fish kills and algal blooms are feared. NSW is experiencing its most severe drought on record.
Irrigators across NSW and Victoria, faced with partial or zero allocations of water this season, are letting Basin authorities know their pain.
Authorities are facing two class actions over management of water in the system.
Southern Riverina rice growers have launched legal action claiming the MDBA’s water management caused losses of $750 million. Another class action against the NSW Government is threatened by farmers on the Lower Darling River who are struggling with zero water allocation.