River Murray water cuts: Premier vows to fight against Murray Darling Basin Authority plan to reduce water target by 70 billion litres
TAXPAYER funds could be put towards court action and a media ad campaign to secure water for the River Murray.
TAXPAYER funds could be put towards court action and a media ad campaign to secure water for the River Murray.
Premier Jay Weatherill says the State Government is exploring its legal options after The Advertiser revealed that the Murray Darling Basin Authority is proposing cuts to water recovery targets.
After a long fight spearheaded by The Advertiser’s I Love Murray campaign, an agreement was struck in 2012 to restore 2750 billion litres of flows by 2019.
A further 450 billion litres was later added to the target, lifting the total to 3200.
However, the authority, which manages basin resources, is proposing cutting 70 billion litres from the original target.
Mr Weatherill on Monday said the State Government was “exploring all of our options” to reverse the planned cut.
He said he was willing to commit taxpayer money to court action or a media campaign, including television and radio advertisements, if necessary but did not say how much.
“We have to do this in the state and national interest. I think we’ll have friends interstate ... not just governments, but communities and environmentalists across the nation ... that actually believe that this great national river needs to be protected,” he said.
“We will lead a national campaign to overturn this decision ... and they will, at the end of the day, back down because they cannot win this argument.
“We don’t want to have to go down that path, it’s undesirable for Governments at different levels to be involved in litigation, but we had to threaten legal action last time. We’ll explore those options this time. We had a solemn and binding agreement with the Commonwealth Government and we simply want it honoured.”
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