Water row: Keith Pitt tells the states to ‘get on with it’

A row over the future of Murray Darling River Basin Plan has reignited with the Water Minister refusing to consider a NSW government proposal to delay water saving infrastructure projects.

Bunnaloo rice farmer Dominic Garden, with Rosie Scott and Effie, has had to scale back his production due to a lack of water reliability. Picture: Rob Leeson

The row over the delivery of water-saving projects has flared again ahead of a critical meeting of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan Ministerial Council on Friday, with Water Minister Keith Pitt refusing to allow NSW and Victoria an extension to the agreed timeline, declaring the states need to “get on with it”.

Mr Pitt told The Australian there were still four years to go until the 2024 deadline and $4bn in funding was on the table to deliver the remaining water back into the river system by ­upgrading infrastructure so the water could be used more efficiently.

“The states need to get on with it,” he said. “They need to say what they can do — and let’s go.”

Ahead of Friday’s critical MDB Ministerial Council meeting, The Australian has obtained draft agenda items showing that NSW is doubtful it can commit to the MDB plan in good faith.

“Frankly, the commonwealth has ignored everything negotiated by officials, and this does not provide a credible pathway … (we will be) left with no option but to withdraw,” an internal email says.

NSW and Victoria claim a review of the time frame is necessary given repeated advice that targets for water-saving projects will not be completed by 2024.

Both states want the completion dates for the Basin Plan projects changed in the legislation and the ability to bring in new ­projects that better reflect community expectations and achieve environmental outcomes.

Under the current plan, if the projects are not completed on time, the law requires more water to be recovered using buybacks, which Victoria and NSW oppose.

Mr Pitt said that while he was willing to be flexible on projects and “not tied to ideas that are not going to work”, he wanted the states to “step up to their responsibilities” and deliver on projects.

Of the projects NSW is involved with, eight are at risk of delay. Three of the projects that Victoria is involved with are at risk of delay, while one South Australian project may potentially run over the allotted time.

Dominic Garden, a farmer who runs a property with his ­family near Bunnaloo, 45km southwest of Deniliquin, said they were forced to scale back their total rice production because water reliability had been “decimated” in the area. “For me the bottom line is no buybacks,” he said. “We can’t afford it.”

Mr Garden said that he thought it unlikely that the agreed water-saving projects would be delivered by 2024.

“If we have come this far and nothing has happened, I’m not sure how it’s going to happen in the next four years,” he said.

NSW Irrigators’ Council chief executive Claire Miller said ministers must find a “circuit breaker” for the plan, while calling for the deadline to be pushed back.

“The Basin Plan is supposed to be an adaptive management plan, but its rigid deadlines and prescriptive mechanisms make it ­impossible,” she said. “We are fast approaching crunch time.

“Basin communities, farmers and the rivers deserve politics to be put aside and sensible solutions agreed on to get better results than are possible under the current plan,” Ms Miller said.

But National Farmers Federation president Fiona Simson said she wholeheartedly agreed with Mr Pitt that “the time for reports is over” and the states needed to deliver on water-saving projects.

“There is no excuse for basin ministers to delay any further their duty to implement the many recommendations before them to see that the plan is the best version of itself,” Ms Simson said.