Premier Jay Weatherill says River Murray is again at risk of a slow death without promised extra environmental flows

PREMIER Jay Weatherill has warned he won’t let the upstream states ‘dud’ SA as he accuses Acting Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce of walking away from a hard-fought deal to restore water.

PREMIER Jay Weatherill is warning the River Murray is again at risk of a slow death as he accuses Acting Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce of walking away from a hard-fought deal to restore water.

In a bid to defuse controversy over state Water Minister Ian Hunter’s abusive tirade aimed at Mr Joyce, the Premier declared he shared his anger at an alarming breach of trust.

On Thursday night, Mr Hunter directed a foul-mouthed tirade at Acting Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, Victoria’s Water Minister Lisa Neville and various ministerial staffers at a dinner meeting of the Murray Darling Basin Ministerial council at a restaurant in Adelaide.

Sources have revealed Mr Hunter told his fellow ministers to “f--k off” and then stormed out with his staff to get ice-cream.

Today, Mr Weatherill accused Mr Joyce and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of trying to breach the 2012 deal to restore 3200 gigalitres of water to the river.

“This is an alarming breach of trust,” he said.

“It’s not just minister Hunter that’s angry about this matter, every South Australian should be angry at the breach of trust that exists through them walking away from this Murray Darling Basin agreement.

“...We’re not going to allow them to dud us ... the upstream states have been damaging and depleting this river for over a century.”

“We have an historic agreement and just because it’s rained for a few months, the Liberal Party have seized on the opportunity to walk away from important elements of this agreement.”

Yesterday, experts warned the River Murray was at risk of closing if additional flows, promised for the Murray Darling Basin, were not returned.