Overturning Murray-Darling laws could leave SA with far less river water, minister warns

MOVES to overturn Murray-Darling legislation could backfire spectacularly and leave South Australia with far less water in the river than it needs, Water Minister David Littleproud says.

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MOVES to overturn Murray-Darling legislation could backfire spectacularly and leave South Australia with far less water in the river than it needs, federal Water Minister David Littleproud says.

He has written to state Water Minister Ian Hunter saying he has legal advice to that effect.

The Senate could shortly vote to disallow two pieces of legislation — the northern basin review and the sustainable diversion limits (SDL).

Federal Water Minister David Littleproud

The Federal Government says that water can be restored through efficiency measures. But the Greens, who moved the disallowance motion, say the changes will be a “further weakening of environmental allocations”.

Mr Hunter says the State Government will keep pushing all governments to “deliver the basin plan on time and in full”.

Mr Littleproud has had legal advice confirming that if the SDL (disallowance) vote is successful, the Commonwealth will have to recover only 2750GL instead of 3200GL, and he says it will struggle to even do that.

Up to this point the Commonwealth has recovered 2090GL, and he says that could be all they ever get.

“State co-operation is fundamental to the recovery of water through purchase or infrastructure. There is a real (chance) that successful disallowances could see states walk away from the delivery of the basin plan,” he said.

Rex Ellis, with his dog Bill on the Murray near Morgan. Picture David Geraghty / The Australian

“This would make the recovery of any additional water beyond the 2090GL already secured extremely difficult.”

SA Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said that “without any confidence that the plan is delivering the lifeline the river and the environment needs, there’s no way we should be allowing the big corporate irrigators to get their hands on more water originally earmarked for the environment”.

Mr Hunter said it was now up to Mr Littleproud to get commitments from NSW and Victoria to deliver all the water promised.

Yesterday The Advertiser revealed a group of prominent scientists and economists believe the plan is destined for failure anyway because of a lack of evidence for water recovery methods.

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority said a “century of damage cannot be repaired overnight”. Assistant Water Minister Anne Ruston said water had to be recovered without hurting rural and regional communities.