Basin stuff ups: Minister Plibersek post Qld river image to promote Murray Darling efforts

The Albanese Government has used images of rivers in tropical Queensland and coastal NSW to promote its Murray Darling Basin plan efforts.

A 1989 image of Queensland's Elliott River used by Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek in her facebook post promoting the passage of her Murray Darling Basin reforms in December last year.

Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek and her bureaucrats have been caught using images of rivers in tropical Queensland and coastal NSW to promote the Albanese Government’s Murray Darling Basin recovery plan.

In promoting the passing of the government’s Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill last December 2023, Ms Plibersek posted a 1989 photograph of tropical Queensland’s Elliott River, across which she had written “Our Bill to to save the Murray Darling Basin Plan has passed the Parliament”.

A 1989 image of Queensland's Elliott River used by Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek in her facebook post promoting the passage of her Murray Darling Basin reforms in December last year.

Reverse image searches also showed Ms Plibersek’s Department of of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water bureaucrats even used an image of a Turkish orange grove and Gippsland sheep property on the landing page for their Murray Darling Basin campaign.

iStock photograph taken in Turkey on June 26, 2019, used on Albanese Government's main Muray Darling Basin campaign webpage.

Ms Plibersek’s bureaucrats also used an image of Cronulla Bay inlet, on the NSW coast south of Sydney, to promote the Government’s Basin recovery plan.

The DCCEEW bureaucrats posted the Cronulla Bay photograph on X (formerly Twitter) last week, with the post “Dive into our plan to protect the #MurrayDarling”, with a link to its website on boosting basin river flows.

The post goes on to state “Murray Darling Rivers attract visitors from around the world – but swimming, fishing, boating and other recreational water activities are only possible in clean, safe water”.

But a reverse photo search on google shows the image was taken in former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s electorate at Cronulla Bay, within NSW Royal National Park Park, back in 2008 and is available for purchase on the Alamy group’s website for $70.

Water Minister Tanya Plibersek's water bureaucrats' used this image from Cronulla Bay, just south of Sydney, to promote their Murray Darling Basin efforts.

Former Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder David Papps posted a comment on the DCCEEW post, asking “What river is shown in the photo?”

Former ACT resource and environment manager Ian Thompson also questioned the image, by posting “not a lot of coastal angophora and Hawkesbury sandstone in the basin”.

Mr Papps’ last comment, which has since been deleted from the feed, stated: “Yep. That’s what I saw, but didn’t think the federal department would be silly enough to feature a river outside the MDB – I was wrong”.

Comments posted by former Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder David Papps and others on DCCEEW post.

A DCCEEW spokesman aid the department accepted responsibility for the error.

“The photo was from another location and has now been removed,” the spokesman said.

It’s the second time Ms Plibersek’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water bureaucrats have been caught out using false images.

Last month The Weekly Times reported DCCEEW launched a multi-million dollar television advertising campaign showing bleak images of dead fish and trees, which irrigators and digital experts argue appeared to be fake.

Federal Opposition water spokeswoman Perin Davey said it was an embarrassment that the “department’s ongoing campaign uses an image of Cronulla Bay in the Royal National Park to depict the Murray Darling Basin”.

“Perhaps if they had been out there, they would be able to see that the multimillion-dollar advertising campaign is not using basin imagery, rather stock images or artificial intelligence.

“Is it any wonder the people in the basin feel ignored when there is no one to listen to them and now it appears they are not even seen.”