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Leader threatens Murray river pact

QUEENSLAND'S Opposition Leader has threatened to pull the plug on a water-sharing pact with the other states if he wins power on March 21.

Lawrence Springborg arrives on Great Keppel Island yesterday with environment spokesman David Gibson. Picture: Bruce Long
Lawrence Springborg arrives on Great Keppel Island yesterday with environment spokesman David Gibson. Picture: Bruce Long
TheAustralian

QUEENSLAND'S Opposition Leader has threatened to pull the plug on a water-sharing pact with the other states if he wins power on March 21.

Liberal National Party leader Lawrence Springborg said yesterday he was prepared to renege on the Murray-Darling Basin deal if it made local farming communities worse off.

"We will look after Queensland's position," Mr Springborg told The Australian.

"I am sick of Queensland being the bogeyman. The big water users are actually downstream."

The Bligh Labor Government passed legislation late last year transferring power to a new Murray-Darling Basin Authority to divide and monitor water use across the basin, which begins in Queensland and stretches through NSW and Victoria to South Australia.

In return, Queensland will receive $350 million in compensation for limiting its water use.

But Mr Springborg said Queensland could pull out of the pact if it no longer suited.

"We have a reserve right in the legislation to pull out of the agreement," he said. "We just hope that it works in the best interests of Queensland and we don't have to exercise that (right).

"People are committed to the principle of it ... but we don't want it to affect communities that are vibrant along the river systems. We will keep a watching brief about the fairness and the way it's going to impact on those communities."

Mr Springborg said he had "an issue" with the way the Murray-Darling agreement had been drawn up.

"It's been founded more on a political understanding of water than a real understanding of water," he said.

"The Murray-Darling has historically been a river system that's run at mightily high flows sometimes and been dry for years, right back to the 1800s. Water politics can best be summed up like this: everyone upstream from you is a water robber, and everyone downstream of you is a big whinger."

Mr Springborg described NSW's Menindee Lakes, which supplies Broken Hill, as "an appalling waste of water".

"It evaporates twice the full capacity of (Brisbane's) Wivenhoe Dam each year; billions of litres," he said.

Federal Water Minister Penny Wong last night criticised Mr Springborg for "deciding to play short-term politics on this issue".

Mr Springborg also revealed his opposition to Canberra's proposal for a takeover of state hospital systems.

"We're less than warm on it at this stage," he said. "We ought to be localising the delivery of our healthcare rather than regionalising it or centralising it.

"The federal Government is right to be concerned it's not getting value for its dollar, and so should the taxpayer, but centralising it won't necessarily fix it."

Mr Springborg said an LNP government would bring back the community hospital boards abolished two decades ago.

An LNP victory in Queensland this month could be a speed bump in Kevin Rudd's road-map to reform federalism, with conservative governments in Western Australia and Queensland hostile to his reforms.

But Mr Springborg said he supported much of the Rudd agenda, particularly a back-to-basics national schools curriculum.

"I'm happy for a national curriculum, I'm happy for us to be moving towards a whole range of regulatory consistency across trades licensing and qualifications," he said.

"While NSW is a complete and utter cot-case administratively, from an education point of view it's arguably the best in Australia."

Natasha Bita
Natasha BitaEducation Editor

Natasha Bita is a multi-award winning journalist with a focus on free speech, education, social affairs, aged care, health policy, immigration, industrial relations and consumer law. She has won a Walkley Award, Australia’s most prestigious journalism award, and a Queensland Clarion Award for feature writing. Natasha has also been a finalist for the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year Award and the Sir Keith Murdoch Award for Excellence in Journalism. Her reporting on education issues has won the NSW Professional Teachers’ Council Media Award and an Australian Council for Educational Leaders award. Her agenda-setting coverage of aged care abuse won an Older People Speak Out award. Natasha worked in London and Italy for The Australian newspaper and News Corp Australia. She is a member of the Canberra Press Gallery and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance. Contact her by email natasha.bita@news.com.au

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/leader-threatens-murray-river-pact/news-story/94ae796308d1eb6ef6c0fa1a0b8d610f